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The Special Collections Department in the Morris Library includes many primary sources. Consult with the staff to identify appropriate sources. Manuscript collections may not be in DELCAT.

Most Library online resources can be accessed from off campus by current UD faculty, staff, and students. When using links on these pages, you may be prompted for your UDelNetID and password. If you encounter problems accessing Library databases, e-journals, or e-books, use the UD proxy login page.

Primary sources are first-hand accounts of topics or events. They provide firsthand testimony or direct evidence.

Primary sources include diaries, speeches, letters, manuscripts, memoirs, autobiographies, records of governments or organizations, and published materials (books, journals, newspaper articles) written at the time of an event or issue. Primary sources may also include photographs, tape recordings, oral histories, and maps. In literature, an original work such as a novel, poem, short story or play is also considered to be a primary source.

Secondary sources are accounts of the past written after the event. They are often based on information found in primary sources. They interpret or analyze a particular event. Secondary sources include textbooks, encyclopedias, and literary criticism.

• It is often a good idea to review the secondary literature first to gain an understanding of the key players and events associated with the topic.

• Primary sources are much easier to find with specific names and events for searching.

To search for primary source materials in DELCAT, the Library's online catalog, or in WorldCat Local, combine keywords or subject terms with additional terms that pertain to the type of material. Such terms include “correspondence,” “diaries,” “letters,” “manuscripts,” “papers,” “personal narratives,” and “sources.” Use the advanced search option to combine multiple criteria.

Examples:
	keywords		soldiers and diaries
	keywords		personal narratives and civil war and united states
	keywords		women AND world war 1939-1945 AND (sources OR letters OR diaries)
	subjects		Manuscripts, American--Facsimiles
	subjects		Manuscripts--Catalogs

Many collections of primary materials relating to the history of the United States and other countries have been digitized and made available on the Internet.

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