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Finding Primary Sources for History Research: History 301 (History Methodology)

How to find books, documents, magazine articles, newspaper articles and other first hand or eyewitness accounts.

History Methodology Library Instruction Handout

History Research, Library Resources (Spring 2025)
Chloé Pascual, History Librarian, Chloe.Pascual@csulb.edu

 

University Library PAGE Is the place to start. It contains an overview of library research services available.

GO BEYOND WIKIPEDIA! FIND SCHOLARLY SUBJECT ENCYCLOPEDIAS IN OUR ONLINE LIBRARY

Here is a list of 300+ online history related subject encyclopedias; Add a third subject term, as seen in this formulation hist* encyclop* slave*. And you will see 20+ online titles. (The asterisk* at the end of a word will find singular or plural or variant words.) Slave* = Slavery or Slaves or Slaveholders or Slavemasters.

FINDING BOOKS IN ONESEARCH 

  • OneSearch Search Techniques 
    • Use "quotation marks" for phrases or force word adjacency. Entering "race riots" will force that phrase.
    • Use * (asterisk) if you want word variants. Entering histor* will produce history, histories, historians, historiography, historical, etc.
    • Use capitalized OR if you want synonyms and place them in parentheses. (slavery OR indentured OR bondage OR servitude)
    • To get results with higher relevancy to you topic, use subject keyword searches. These may produce results with higher relevancy to your search.
  • Getting Books From Other Libraries
    • If you discover a CSULB owned print book in OneSearch, we can get to you in a week from CSU+ or BeachReach. But if you want to just view our online books, select "Full Text Online" option, Review this graphic.

FINDING PRIMARY HISTORICAL CONTENT IN ONESEARCH

These subject keywords will tend to find primary historical content. 

sources   personal narratives   biography   correspondence   interviews  

letters   papers   facsimiles   pictorial   oral history  diaries

For self-authored works that may contain primary content, search for keyword, autobiograph*

Another way to use OneSearch for primary history is to find the oldest material, or material published around the time, (contemporary to) your historical event. Try searching for pioneers, politicians and historical figures as AUTHORS or SUBJECTS. Then sort or limit your results by date to locate items published at the same time as the historical event or written during the person's life.

Finding full text primary materials in google books

Google has scanned millions of books from libraries and institutes around the world. Generally, books published before the early 1920s are in the public domain and freely readable online, depending on Google's somewhat obscure criteria.

Book and Journal Loaning Options from other libraries

  • CSU+ To rapidly get books that we don't have, (within 2-4 days) from other CSU libraries. Due to Covid, this service may be unavailable. See Current Library Services.
  • BEACH REACH Use to get journal articles we don't own delivered rapidly to your desktop.

YOU MUST GET TO KNOW THESE TWO IMPORTANT DATABASES FOR SCHOLARLY HISTORY RESEARCH 

These premier scholarly indexes for historical contain articles and books published since the mid 1950s. Both databases may be searched simultaneously. See this 4 minute tutorial on how to search.

OTHER Research Databases

Many of the databases below will directly link to full text, (or will indirectly link 2 or 3 clicks away) scholarly journal articles, popular magazines, newspaper articles, book chapters, or documents. This iconGet It @ CSULB  means the item may be a couple clicks away. Those titles listed with RED Beginning-Ending Dates suggest primary content

  • Westlaw  After it opens, go to NEWS section in upper right of screen to view a wide variety of national and international newspapers.

FINDING ARCHIVES, RARE MATERIAL

  • ArchivesGrid includes over 4 million records describing archival materials, historical documents, personal papers, family histories, from over 1000 different archives. Many archives link to online options.
  • Digital Library of America. "Uncovers millions of materials from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions across the country available to all in a one-stop discovery"
  • SNAC (Social Networks and Archival Context) "a free, online resource that helps users discover biographical and historical information about persons, families, and organizations that created or are documented in historical resources (primary source documents) and their connections"
  • World Digital Library "Contains cultural heritage materials from thousands of worldwide institutions, as well as content from Library of Congress collections

Citing Historical Materials

Google tips and techniques

  • For word adjacency, phrases, put your topic in "quotation marks”
     It is not needed for single word concepts. 

    • Example “country of Georgia”

    • The asterisk* (truncation) will not work in a GOOGLE search

site:edu (to find sites located at colleges, universities)

site:org (to find sites at nonprofit organizations)

site:gov (to find government sites, government documents)

site:be (stands for Belgium. Use two letter country codes for domains in a country. 

  • Use Google Scholar to find wide array of scholarly journal articles.

  • Use Google Books to find research snippets in scanned books. If the book reads PREVIEW you are in luck! You may be able to read entire chapters.

PRINT, MICROFILM AND ONLINE COLLECTIONS OF U.S. GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS COVERING U.S. HISTORY See: See Historical U.S. Documents for full description.

The University Library has a large collection of historic U.S. Government Documents. The items include