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UW Libraries: Finding Primary & Secondary Sources

Where to Begin Your Research at the UW

You can begin your research at the UW Libraries from your home or school with any computer linked to the Internet. The UW Libraries homepage provides links to the electronic resources available in the UW Libraries (including at the Tacoma and Bothell campus libraries). Use the UW Libraries homepage to search the catalog for books, check opening hours, and take a tutorial to brush up your research skills.

Before visiting the UW Libraries you should find as much about your topic using resources close to home: your school and public library. Many public libraries including Seattle Public and King county Public have databases such as the New York Times Historical Backfile, History Resource Center and Proquest.

Your time at the UW Libraries will be spent more efficiently if you have completed preliminary research:

• Have a well-thought out topic. Do some preliminary reading on the topic so you have a good grasp of the historical context and major issues.
• Complile a list of possible search terms including subject keywords, important people, events and locations.
• Compile a list of the types of information you are seeking -- newspapers, secondary sources, diaries, census data, photographs, etc.
• Determine, with the help of your school librarian or teacher, what research tools will help you find the information you need. In other words, what databases might be the most useful, what libraries will have the type of information you need. Some useful databases are described and listed in the sections dealing with finding primary and secondary sources. All of the databases discussed below that are marked UW ONLY can only be used from computers within the UW libraries.

You can also begin your UW Libraries research from home or school by using the UW Libraries Catalog. The catalog includes the more than 6 million books, journal subscriptions, maps and other materials owned by the 18 libraries that make up the UW Libraries.

To make the most of an in-person visit to the UW Libraries, search the catalog first and note down the titles, location and call number of books that you want to see. For example: American concentration camps: a documentary history of the relocation and incarceration of Japanese Americans, 1942-1945 is located in Suzzallo/Allen Stacks with the call number of D753.8 .A77 1989. With this information you can locate the book in the library.

Another source you can use from home is the UW Libraries Digital Collections. The Digital Collections include thousands of photographs (mostly dealing with Pacific Northwest history) and some documents. One major collection is American Indians of the Pacific Northwest which contains more than 2,300 photographs and 7,000 pages of text.

For additional information on planning a visit see:

• Services for K12 Visitors
• Services for Visitors

The UW Libraries has 16 libraries on the main Seattle campus. Some libraries and library units are especially useful for historical research. The units listed below are all located in the Suzzallo and Allen Libraries.

• Special Collections
  Special Collections has specialized holdings dealing with the Pacific Northwest including books, historical photographs, and unpublished manuscripts (letters, diaries, papers) of local people and organizations (including the university). Specialized databases available in Special Collections include the Pacific Northwest Regional Newspaper and Periodical Index, pamphlet file and scrapbook collection.

• Microform & Newspaper Collections (MCNEWS)
  MCNEWS has a large collection of newspapers including international (complete run of the Times of London), national (complete run of the New York Times) and local (complete run of the Seattle Times). MCNEWS also has on microfilm presidential papers and collections of manuscripts dealing with women's, African American, and Native American history and more. See this selective list of primary sources on microfilm.

• Government Publications
  Government Publications has a strong collection of current and historical U.S., state and local government reports.

• Suzzallo Reference
  Reference librarians at Suzzallo Reference can help you get started on your research at the UW Libraries. They can direct you to appropriate databases and provide searching advice. There are many specialized encyclopedias dealing with historical topics housed in Suzzallo Reference such as the Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, Encylopedia of the United States in the Twentieth Century and Encyclopedia of the Korean War: a political, social, and military history.

The Gallagher Law Library is separate from the UW Libraries. For more information about Law Library services and collections, see the Gallagher Law Library home page.

The UW Libraries has a strong collection of published primary sources dealing with American and British history. Primary sources for other nations are also available (though often in the original language).

Books
The UW Libraries has a huge collection of books that can be considered primary sources. These include books written during the period for your topic (i.e., during the Civil War), books written by participants, published collections of correspondence and other personal writings, memoirs and reprints of collections of primary source material. Most books are printed but some are microfilmed.

Use the following strategies in the UW Libraries Catalog to find books that can be considered primary sources:

• Do author searches in the UW Libraries Catalog for books written by key participants (people or organizations).

• Limit your search by publication date(s). Do a keywords search in the UW Libraries Catalog for your topic and fill in the Year After and Before boxes.

• Use special subject headings that designate primary sources. Do a keywords search for your topic in the UW Libraries Catalog and add the phrase "sources or narratives or diaries or correspondence"

Magazine Articles
Magazine articles can be a good source of primary material for historical topics dealing with the 19th and 20th centuries.

Some of the specialized magazine databases available at the UW Libraries include:

• American Periodicals Series Online - UW Only
  Fulltext 18th and 19th century American magazines.
• 19th Century Masterfile - UW ONLY
  Index to 19th century British and American magazines; no fulltext.
• Reader's Guide Retrospective - UW ONLY
  Index to American magazines published from 1890 to 1980; no fulltext.

Once you identify articles you need to have the complete citation (author, title, journal name, volume, pages and year), then look in the journal search portion of the UW Libraries Catalog for the journal name (do a title search for the journal name to see if the UW subscribes) to see if and where the journal is kept (library location and call number).

Newspaper Articles
Newspapers can also be a good source of primary material for historical topics dealing with the 19th and 20th centuries. The UW Libraries has a basic collection of major U.S. newspapers on microfilm for the 19th and 20th centuries. Complete runs are available for such papers as the New York Times, Chicago Tribune and Oregonian. The libraries has a strong collection on Northwest papers. Newspapers are housed in the Microform and Newspaper Collections on the first floor of Suzzallo.

There are few indexes to newspapers predating the 1970s. Generally you will need to browse a newspaper to find articles so it is important to have specific dates in mind. For example, if you are researching the Birmingham march, you would browse newspapers from April 1963.

Some historic newspapers are available online:

• African American Newspapers: The 19th Century - UW ONLY
  Fulltext of 7 African American newspapers from the 19th century including Freedom's Journal and The National Era.
• Historical New York Times - UW ONLY
  Fulltext New York Times articles from 1851-2001. Also available at Seattle Public and King County Public libraries.
• Times Digital Archive - UW ONLY
  Fulltext of the newspaper from 1785-1985.

There are many other useful databases for history. See the history subject page for further suggestions.

Finding Secondary Sources

Secondary sources are generally easier to find than primary sources. They are much more likely to be included in databases. Some of the databases most useful for finding secondary sources are:

• UW Libraries Catalog
  The catalog can be used to find books written by scholars on historical topics. Most of the material you discover through the catalog will be a secondary source.
• America History & Life (AHL) - UW Only
  The major index to articles published in the field of American and Canadian history. AHL includes a self-guided feature, ClioNotes, which will lead students through a chronological list of topics.
• Historical Abstracts- UW Only
  The major index to articles published in the field of world history (for the period 1450 on). Historical Abstracts includes a self-guided feature, ClioNotes, which will lead students through a regional and chronological list of topics.

There are many other useful databases for history. See the history subject page for further suggestions.

Image: Kitchen girls, Tulalip Indian School, c. 1912. Courtesy of American Indians of the Pacific Northwest Digital Collection.