Finding Books That Include Primary Sources
To identify books that are primary sources:
1) Look for books written by people who were involved in the event or activity you are researching. (Tip: When you look at secondary sources, write down the names of people and then look for them as authors.)
2) In the BGSU Libraries Catalog, the OhioLINK Central Catalog, and WorldCat, books that have been assigned subjects with the subheadings in the list below might be primary sources. Not all books that include primary sources will include one of these words or phrases in a subject heading.
--Diaries
--Correspondence
--Biography
--Sources
--Anecdotes
--Personal narratives
--Interviews
Examples:
Washington, George, 1732-1799 -- Correspondence
United States -- Foreign Relations -- 1801-1809 -- Sources
United States -- History -- 1783-1815 -- Anecdotes
United States -- Social Conditions -- To 1865 -- Sources
United States -- History -- War of 1812 -- Personal Narratives, English
New Mexico -- History -- Mexican War, 1846 - 1848 -- Personal Narratives
Internet Archive
Internet Archive is a database of books, magazines, audio and video files, maps, etc. It's a good place to find books that are old enough to be no longer under copyright.
- Internet ArchiveFor a more complex search, click on the Advanced Search link to the right of the search box on the home page. This allows you to customize your search in many ways.
Searching the Catalogs for Books
- BGSU Libraries CatalogIndexes books, magazines and journals, videos, music, and electronic resources that are owned by BGSU.
- OhioLINK Library CatalogIndexes books, videos, music, electronic resources from college and university libraries, the State Library of Ohio, and some large public libraries in Ohio. Request online, with delivery to Jerome Main Circulation desk in 3-5 business days.
- WorldCat (OCLC FirstSearch)Identify materials at tens of thousands of academic, public, and special libraries internationally. You can request things not owned by BGSU or OhioLINK via interlibrary loan -- average delivery time is 17 days.
HathiTrust Digital Library
- HathiTrust Digital Libraryprovides access to a database of digitized books and other materials. You can search the catalog, search full text, or browse the public collections. Note that not all books are available full text.
To find only those books that are available full text, you can search the catalog and click on the box next to "Full View Only."
To do a more complex search, click on the Advanced Catalog Search link. You can also select "Full View Only" on this page.
Google Books
- Google BooksA Google search engine for the full text of millions of digitized books. Books are both in the public domain (published before 1923) and protected by copyright; full-text can be viewed for public-domain works but not for all works searched by Google Books.
In addition to keyword searching, you can also browse by subjects, listed on the left side of the page. Each book in the results list will include the designation:
- Full View -- You can view the entire text of the book
- Limited Preview -- You can view some pages of the book
- Snippet View -- You can see the publication information, plus a few sentences from the book
- No Preview Available -- You can see only the publication information about the book
To search for only full text books:
- Fill in the elements of your search in the Google Books Advanced Search
- From the Search: line, choose Full View Only
- Click on the Google Search button