Primary sources are artifacts that were created during the time that is being studied. Some examples include letters, diaries, photos or videos, newspaper or magazine articles, interviews, speeches, oral histories, government documents, public opinion polls, and Tweets or other social media posts (for contemporary topics). We use primary sources both to get and to give a more complete view of what people were thinking, feeling, and experiencing at the time that we are studying.
The library has access to primary sources through many of our databases.
Google Advanced Search is a very powerful search tool when you are searching for primary sources because it allows you to limit what types of sites you search.
Some tips:
The library has many books that include primary sources. Some of these books are marked with purple stickers on their spines.
Many of these books are located in the Reference section (call numbers start with "R") or the Non-Fiction section. For this project, the best place to look in either collection is at books with a Dewey Decimal number between 900 and 999.