10 Great Platforms for Primary Source Documents

July11, 2014
Resources like the Library of Congress have considerable archives and documents available, and many of them have taken their collections online. Use these search tools to get access to these incredible resources.

Library of Congress:

In this incredible library, you’ll get access to searchable source documents, historical photos, and amazing digital collections.

Archives Hub:

Find the best of what Britain has to offer in the Archives Hub. You’ll be able to search archives from almost 200 institutions from England, Scotland, and Wales.

National Archives:

Check out this resource for access to the National Archives. Find online, public access to find historic documents, research, government information, and more in a single search.

arXiv e-Print Archive:

Cornell University’s arXiv.org offers open access to a wealth of e-prints in math, science, and related subjects. Search this resource to find what you need among 756,133 documents and counting.

National Agricultural Library:

A service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, you can find global information for agriculture in the National Agricultural Library.

Smithsonian Institution Research Information System:

Get access to the considerable resources of the Smithsonian Institution through the Research Information System, a great way to search more than 7.4 million records from the Smithsonian’s museums, archives, and libraries.

The British Library Catalogues & Collections:

Explore the British Library catalogues, printed materials, digital collections, and even collection blogs for a wealth of resources.

CIA World Factbook:

As the center of intelligence, the CIA has certainly done its job with The World Factbook, offering information on major reference information around the world. History, people, government, economy, and more are all covered in this online publication.

OpenDOAR:

In the Directory of Open Access Repositories, you can search through freely academic research information with more directly useful resources.

Catalog of U.S. Government Publications:

Search through the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications to find descriptive records for historical and current publications, with direct links where available.

Courtesy of Online Universities

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Awesome Explanation on The Difference Between Primary and Secondary Sources for Students

April 3, 2014
Knowing the difference between primary and secondary sources is  essential for students working on research projects. In the video below, LeFever from Commoncraft explains this difference using as example the story of Great Storm that hit England in the 18th century. Here is how he went about doing it:

To learn about this storm students will use two major sources of information to establish the facts and  represent the most accurate version of the event:

Primary sources
These are first hand accounts of  what exactly happened told by those people who directly experienced and lived the event. These accounts can come in different formats such as:  documents, memoires, interview scripts, scientific documents and many more.These primary materials are the best sources for writing a research paper on the event under study as they come from people who were actually there when the event happened.

However, while primary sources are essential for doing research on this event , students may also draw on information provide by  secondary sources.

Secondary sources
Secondary sources include  documentation and analysis of primary sources and other relevant information after the fact. For instance, a research paper in which the researcher gathered and analyzed the different primary sources about the event and came up with new insights  through comparing the event  with other similar events in history is considered a secondary source.

Watch the video to learn more about the difference between primary and secondary sources.

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