Definition of Primary Resources:
A good definition of what primary resource materials are can be found at the UCLA Institute on Primary Resources .

Finding materials in our catalog:
It is difficult to locate primary resources using the subject headings in the catalog. Keyword searching is more effective. Some suggested keyword searches are:

United States and history and sources
United States and history and documents

Other countries/areas such as Europe or time periods such as Renaissance can be substituted in these examples as needed.

Helpful reference books: (available at Voorhees)
Annals of America at R973.08 Ann
Personal Name Index to the New York Times at the Index Tables
American Revolution Reference Library at R973.3 Ame
Colonial America Reference Library at R973.2 Saa
Holocaust Reference Library at R940.5318 Hol

Periodical Indexes: (available at Voorhees)
Reader's Guide Retrospective 
Database that provides searchable access to  citations from 523 leading U.S. magazines, covering the years between 1963 and 1982.  Searches over 675,000 articles.

Readers Guide to Periodical Literature at the Index Tables
Print Index that covers leading U.S. magazines from 1900-present.

New York Times Index at the Index Tables
Print index covering Sept. 1851-present.

Camdenbase
The CAMDEN Database contains selected citations of journal, book and newspaper articles about the city of Camden, New Jersey. The documents cover economic, political, and social events in the city from 1945 to the present. This website provides bibliographic access to the database of over 4000 articles. You can search by keyword or browse the holdings by specific themes.               

Book Review Index at the Index Tables
Index for reviews of books 1965-present.

Book Review Digest at the Index Tables
Index for reviews of books 1910-present.

A selection of our historical periodical holdings: (available at Voorhees)
Courier Post Oct. 1949-present
New York Times 1851-present
Life 1937-1972; 1978-May 2000
Nation July 1909-present
New Republic Nov. 1914-present
Newsweek  1933-present
Time March 1923-present
Saturday Evening Post 1920-present
US News & World Report 1950-present
Vital Speeches of the Day Aug. 1964-present

Databases: (available at Voorhees)
Ancestry Plus Digital imaged of census records 1790-1930. Also includes full-text slave narratives that are searchable by topic and keyword.

Websites:

US History Primary and Secondary Resources Pathfinder from College & Research Libraries News http://www.ala.org/acrl/resnov01.html
An excellent annotated guide to the primary source materials available on the Internet related to US history. Materials include documents, pictures and sound files. This is a great place to start your research!

Primary Sources on the Web 
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/PrimarySourcesOnTheWeb.html
A pathfinder about library research using primary sources. It has a nice collection of links to websites with primary source materials.

Internet History Sourcebooks Project
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/
The Internet History Sourcebooks are collections of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented for educational use. Sourcebooks offered include Ancient History, Medieval History and Modern History.

The History Guide: Online Resources for Historians
http://www.historyguide.org/resources.html
Includes a list of links to websites that provide access to primary source documents. Many of the sites are related to US history though some cover European history as well.

American Memory: Historical Collections for the National Digital Library
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ammemhome.html
Provided by the Library of Congress, this website can access over 7 million digitized items from more than 100 historical collections. These primary resources include text, photographs, film, maps and music (sound and sheet.)

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/teaching_with_documents.html
The Teaching with Documents pages links to reproducible copies of primary documents from the holdings of the National Archives of the United States. Documents are grouped by time period.

EuroDocs: Primary Historical Documents from Western Europe
http://library.byu.edu/~rdh/eurodocs/
Western European (mainly primary) historical documents that are transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated.

American Colonist's Library
http://personal.pitnet.net/primarysources/
A collection of the literature and documents which were most relevant to the lives of Colonial Americans.

Ogram's 17th Century New England Links
http://www.17thc.us/index.php?id=17
Links to images from daily life in the 17th century. Includes legal documents pertaining to the Salem Witch Trials.

World War I Document Archive
http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/
Archive of primary documents from World War I including official papers and personal reminiscences.

World War II Resources
http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/
Archive of primary documents from World War II. This archive is mostly official papers.

Historical United States Census Browser
http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/census/
Not truly a primary document, but the data presented on this site describe the people and the economy of the US for each state and the nation from 1790-1960.