Primary sources are materials produced by participants or observers at the time of an event or during a particular span of years. They are "original" in that the recording of the event or experience originates with the participants or direct observers. Some examples of primary sources are:

• Diaries, journals, memoirs, letters, autobiographies
• Official documents or records from government or private organizations (minutes, reports, etc.)
• Books, magazines, and newspapers produced at the time of the event
• Court decisions, transcripts, and other legal papers
• Research data (reports, market surveys, public opinion polls, statistics)
• Films, photographs, paintings, video recordings
• Novels, poetry, and plays

ArchivesGrid

This is a service provided by RLG, a non-profit organization of libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions. It is a centralized index to archival collections located throughout the world and is a valuable resource for locating records in other archives.

OCLC WorldCat

WorldCat is a global network of libraries that unite their collections in one master catalog. It is a union catalog of over 49 million records representing books, journals, dissertations, audio-visual materials, and manuscripts in repositories worldwide.

There are lots of primary source materials in libraries around the country; this catalog holds a growing number of more than 6,000 links to online finding aids. Included in their genealogy search are books, ship passenger lists, historical society records, archival photos, articles on research techniques, family histories, and digital image collections.

National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC)

The National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections is a print and online catalog of manuscript collections held in US repositories. The Library of Congress provides a Web interface for searching archival and manuscript cataloging in OCLC WorldCat.

• This service is provided free-of-charge.

National Inventory of Documentary Sources in the United States (NIDS)

By bringing together thousands of finding aids from libraries and archives across the United States and reproducing them on microfiche with a unified index, NIDS gives users unparalleled access to federal, state, academic and other documentary sources. In allowing researchers to examine actual finding aids, NIDS goes further than either NUCMC or RLIN which offer collection-level descriptions, but do not contain detailed listings of the contents of collections.

• This service is fee-based.

ArchivesUSA

This is a current directory of over 5,500 repositories and more than 161,000 collections of primary source material across the United States. NUCMUC & NIDS were folded into this database.

Using ArchivesUSA, researchers are able to read descriptions of a repository's holdings to determine whether a collection contains material useful to their work as well as find the information they need to contact the repository directly. Repository records provide detailed information including phone and fax numbers, hours of service, materials solicited, email and home page URLs when available. Each collection record links to its corresponding repository record, simplifying the research process.

• This service is fee-based.

Repositories of Primary Sources

This is a listing of over 5000 websites describing holdings of manuscripts, archives, rare books, historical photographs, and other primary sources for the research scholar. Includes international archives.

UNESCO Archives Portal

The UNESCO Archives Portal gives access to websites of archival institutions around the world. It is also a gateway to resources related to records and archives management and to international co-operation in this area.

America's Historical Newspapers (1690-1876) Digitized historic newspapers. Check geographic coverage under places of publication.

American Periodicals Series: (1740-1900) Digitized American magazines and journals.

American Memory Project More than 9 million digitized items from the Library of Congress.

Avalon Project documents in law, history and diplomacy at Yale Law School Library.

Making of America a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction at the University of Michigan.

Nineteenth Century in Print Twenty-three digitized popular, literary and political periodicals and magazines. View titles and dates. Over 1500 digitized books from the 19th C.

Here is a list of historical Oregon newspapers and a list of historical national newspapers, including The New York Times. in microfilm on the 3rd floor of The Valley Library.

You can also search for some archival articles from The New York Times at their site. Create your free personal account first.