Fresno State Library Resources
Primary source material can often be found in books. Photographs, reprinted speeches, images of original artwork or collections of letters are all examples of primary sources that can be located within books. Here are a few tips for searching for books with primary source material using OneSearch.
Authors will sometimes gather important documents on a topic and publish them as a sourcebook. These may be found by adding the term "sources" to a search for a subject (e.g. Cherokee Indians Sources):
Personal writings (letters, memoirs, autobiographies, etc) are a primary source. To locate these materials, enter your topic keyword and add any one of the following: memoir* or autobiograph* or diar* or letters or correspondence or speech* or sermon* or papers (adding a * to diar* searches for both diary and diaries):
If you have any questions or need help locating a book on your topic, please Ask a Librarian.
Examples of Books Containing Primary Source Material
-
American Decades: Primary Sources
by
Call Number: 1st Floor - Reference ; f E169.1 .A471977 2004ISBN: 9780787665883Publication Date: 2003-12-05Print and e-book versions available. -
Milestone Documents of World Religions [print]
by
Call Number: 1st Floor - Reference ; BL31 .M55 2011ISBN: 9780979775888Publication Date: 2011-01-30 -
-
Native American Testimony
by
Call Number: Lower Level ; E93 .N3 1999ISBN: 9780140281590Publication Date: 1999-12-01 -
Milestone documents in African American history : Exploring the essential primary sources
by
Call Number: Lower Level ; E184.6 .M55 2010ISBN: 9781935306054Publication Date: 2010-06-30 -
Women's Voices, Women's Lives: documents in early American history
by
Call Number: Lower Level ; HQ1416 .W67 1998ISBN: 9781555533519Publication Date: 1998-05-14 -
Nineteenth-Century Writings on Homosexuality [print]
by
Call Number: Lower Level ; PR1111.H57 L68 1999ISBN: 9780415153058Publication Date: 1999-05-14 -
Nineteenth-Century Writings on Homosexuality [e-book]
by
ISBN: 0415153069Publication Date: 1999-04-16
Databases with primary source material
-
America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new windowIncludes Early American Newspapers, Series 1, 1690-1876, which offers 350,000 fully searchable issues from over 710 historical American newspapers, mostly from the 18th and early 19th centuries.
-
New York Times (1851-current) This link opens in a new window
Searchable full text of the New York Times. Includes front-page headlines, classified ads, marriage and death announcements, comic strips, reviews, display advertising, editorials, birth notices, and photographs.
-
American Periodicals Series This link opens in a new windowPrimary source collection that includes full text access to over 1,000 American magazines and journals published between 1740-1943.
-
American History in Video This link opens in a new windowContains over 8,000 films, documentaries, interviews, newsreels, and more. More than half of the videos are contemporaneous video from the 1890s to the 1980s.
-
ARTstor This link opens in a new windowProvides access to over 2.4 million digital images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences.
-
U.S. Congressional Serial Set 1817-1994 This link opens in a new windowPrimary historical source materials documenting the political, social and economic development of our nation. The reports are usually from congressional committees dealing with proposed legislation and issues under investigation. The documents include all other papers ordered printed by the House or Senate. Documents cover a wide variety of topics and may include reports of executive departments and independent organizations, reports of special investigations made for Congress, and annual reports of non-governmental organizations.
-
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new windowEighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) is a fully-searchable collection of books, pamphlets and broadsides in all subjects printed between 1701 and 1800. ECCO is a digitization of the eighteenth-century section of the works catalogued in the English Short-title Catalogue (ESTC), which records all works published or printed in Britain, Ireland, territories under British colonial rule, and the United States. The works vary from multi-volume encyclopedias, to dictionaries, law books, histories, poetry, novels, and plays, biographies, works of science, philosophy, theology, religious books, tracts and sermons, royal, government or local proclamations, letters, journals and diaries, almanacks, acts of parliament, works on art, architecture, and auction catalogues, music, petitions, and schoolbooks.
-
Nineteenth Century Collections Online (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
Focusing on primary source collections of the nineteenth century, NCCO comprises a variety of material types--monographs, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts, ephemera, maps, statistics, and more--in one cross-searchable location. Collections in this database include: British Politics and Society Asia and The West: Cultural Diplomacy and Exchange British Theatre, Music, Literature: High and Popular Culture The Corvey Collection of European Literature, 1790-1840. Includes:
- NCCO 1 -- British Politics and Society
- NCCO 2 -- Asia and The West: Cultural Diplomacy and Exchange
- NCCO 3 -- British Theatre, Music, Literature: High and Popular Culture
- NCCO 4 -- The Corvey Collection of European Literature, 1790-1840
Early American Imprints, 1639-1800 and Early American Imprints, 1801-1819. Based on Evan's American Bibliography and on Shaw-Shoemaker's American Bibliography. Contains the full text of all known existing books, pamphlets, and broadsides printed in the United States (or British American colonies prior to Independence) from 1639 through 1819, some 72,000 titles.
-
Special Collections Research CenterThe Special Collections Research Center is comprised of several specialized book collections, manuscript collections, the University Archives and the Central Valley Political Archive.
-
Digital CollectionsThe Library has developed digital collections along with partners at Fresno State, and in the local community. Our digital collections reflect the depth of the library collections as well as the creativity of the Fresno State community and the greater community of the Central Valley.
-
Special Collections Research Center guide for Ethnic StudiesUnique collections at Fresno State related to ethnic studies disciplines.
U.S. Historical Documents Guide to working with U.S. Historical Documents from the Fresno State Library
-
Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children’s LiteratureThe Center is one of North America's leading resources for the study of children's and young adult literature. The growing collection of 50,000 books, periodicals, manuscripts, original art, and papers of authors and illustrators, has an international and multicultural emphasis. Its materials are available to anyone for use in the Center's reading area.