Library DIY

Locate Primary Sources via Thrift Catalog

The Thrift Library catalog includes primary sources that are available in print and online. If you are looking for a specific item, search by title or author. 

Use Advanced Search to limit by date or by format (e.g., images, audio visual, scores).

If you are looking for primary sources on a certain topic, do an Advanced Search. Here you can limit by format (e.g., images, audio, video, scores), publication year, author, or subject. (Subjects can be especially helpful for narrowing a search by topic or by document type (e.g., correspondence, autobiography, letters).

Below are some recommended catalog search terms for locating primary sources. 

• Any kind of primary source: Sources or documents (examples: medieval sources, civil war documents, papal sources)
   
• Personal accounts, autobiographies, or memoirs: Personal narratives or Autobiography or memoir  (examples: Pearl Harbor personal narratives, battle of the bulge memoir, autobiography world war II)
   
• Letters: Correspondence or letters (examples: Civil War correspondence, French Revolution letters)
   
• Diaries: Diary (examples: Civil War diary, woman diary France)
   
• Oral history: Interview or oral history or speeches (examples: Cold War interview, Japanese internment oral history, Malcolm X speeches)
   
• Pamphlet: Pamphlet (examples: pamphlet chastity, rights of women pamphlet)
   
• Photographs or artwork: Pictorial works (examples: Chicago pictorial works, World's Fair pictorial works)

Try these words in a general keyword search, or to narrow your results limit the search to "subject."