Primary Sources in the Humanities  Tags: primary_sources humanities  

To search digitized texts from Brandeis University on the Internet Archive, try this link. You can also search for them via the Internet Archive Advanced Search screen. Under "Custom Field," choose "contributor" and type "Brandeis University" (without the quotation marks). You will see a list of full-text digitized books from the Brandeis University Libraries, and you can sort and refine your results.

You can also add keywords to the above to search for specific collections contributed by Brandeis, including the McKew Parr Collection on Magellan and the Age of Discovery and the Alfred Dreyfus Collection.

A growing number of websites, usually mounted by libraries or commercial vendors, offer digital versions of primary texts. Examples include American Memory from the Library of Congress or Making of America, a joint project from the University of Michigan and Cornell University. Some of these texts can be accessed through the Brandeis University Libraries' website, while others are freely available on the Web.

*Remember, provide yourself enough time to do your research! It takes time to gather raw material, synthesize it, and draw conclusions about its relevance and meaning.

The Brandeis University Libraries have many primary texts in electronic format. Consult LOUIS to find them. LOUIS lists resources like the Digital National Security Archive, which contains the full text of more than 35,000 declassified documents involving U.S. foreign and military policy since 1945.

To find electronic versions of primary texts at Brandeis:

1. Identify the topic words you will use for your search. Use encyclopedias and other background resources to identify key participants, dates and publications (reports, newsletters, magazines, pamphlets, etc.) associated with your topic.
2. Go to LOUIS and use the Advanced Search screen.
3. Put your topic words (people, places, events) in the top box with the Keyword(s) Anywhere Search Type selected.
4. Type in the phrase "computer or online or database?" in the second box with the Keyword(s) Anywhere Search Type selected. The question mark will find both singular and plural forms of the word "database."
5. Click on the Go button.

   For example, if you enter in LOUIS the search

   English poetry and (computer or online or database?)

   you will obtain results that include Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, which has the full text of thousands of poems in addition to helpful secondary sources. If you enter

   Islam and (computer or online or database?)

   Records on Islam, a database containing primary Public Record Office historical documents on the Islamic world, will be among your results.

To find digitized versions of primary texts on the Web, try WorldCat, which includes Web accessible scholarly resources. For example, if you enter in WorldCat the search

and you limit type to "Internet resources," you will obtain results that include the Victorian Women Writers Project, which has electronic transcriptions of many texts concerning British women writers of the 19th century.

No comprehensive catalog or listing of Web-accessible digitized collections of primary sources currently exists. There are several incomplete catalogs or listings, but no one authoritative source. Still, a few other resources to search besides WorldCat are The On-Line Books Page, the Oxford Text Archive, or the Digital Librarian's Electronic Texts and Primary Sources.

Some digitized resources, usually because of contractual agreements, may be restricted to users affiliated with a particular institution. In such cases, you might have to find alternative access. Consult a reference librarian for help with developing further search strategies.

Created by Ralph Szymczak
Reference Librarian