History - Primary Sources
Library of Congress Subject Headings for Primary Sources
Primary sources can be identified in library collections by their Library of Congress Subject Heading (LCSH). Items will have subdivisions of the main heading (topic) of:
- --Sources (general term that encompasses a variety of primary sources on the topic)
- LCSH definition: for history, used "under historical headings for collections of contemporary writings or records, such as
legal documents, letters, diaries, family papers, etc., assembled at a later time to serve as source materials for use by students, scholars, etc., in their study or research on the subject."
- LCSH definition: for history, used "under historical headings for collections of contemporary writings or records, such as
- --Correspondence (for collections of letters)
- --Personal Narratives
- used under names of events and wars for collective or individual eyewitness reports and/or
autobiographical accounts of these events and wars. Prior to 1977, the subdivision was used
more widely under classes of persons, types of activities, and diseases.
- used under names of events and wars for collective or individual eyewitness reports and/or
- --Pictorial works (contains primary photographs, illustrations, etc.).
- --Interviews
- --Diaries
Other forms can also be used a primary sources, such as:
- --Periodicals (if you are looking at the magazines of the period)
- --Handbooks, manuals, etc. (of the time period)
- --Biography (autobiographical)
- --Fiction (novels of the period)
Examples
Sex role -- History -- Sources.
African American women -- Correspondence.
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives.
Race discrimination -- United States -- History -- Sources.
African Americans -- Interviews.
Finding Primary Sources at University Library
To locate primary source material housed at University Library, both books and ebooks/e-govenrnment documents, use the Library's discovery catalog's Advanced Search.
1. From the library home page, select the Advanced Search feature in the "Discover Library Resources" box.
2. For the first search box, select the "Keyword (kw:)" index. Type your general search term, such as "continental congress" in the search box.
Pro Tip: Use quotation marks around phrases: "continental congress." This searches the words together as a phrase.
3. For the second search box, select the "Subject (su:)" index. Enter "sourc*" or "correspondence*" or another more focused term suggested above.
Pro Tip: Combine terms with a capital OR to find a variety of primary sources at once.
"sources" OR correspondence OR narratives OR diaries
