Primary Research (in Archives)

A particularly daunting task for new and not-so-new researchers alike is finding primary sources (typically original, unpublished, first-hand records of an event). The difficulties involved in this task include: understanding research and archives terminology, the lack of a single worldwide or national system linking all collections of primary sources, the complexity of archival organization, the challenge of finding the right kind of source for your particular research needs, and the time involved in each of these. The following pages on conducting primary research with archival material seek to assist in these challenges.

 

Correspondence to Athanasius KircherTypes of Primary Sources and Archives

Selecting Archives for Research

Locating Archives

Organization within Archives

General Research Strategies

Examples of Teaching/Researching with Archives and Other Primers on Primary/Archival Research

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next:

Introduction to the Types of Primary Sources and Archives

 

 

 

 

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Created by Liberty Smith. Originally Created for ILS 504 at Southern Connecticut State University. Last updated: April 24, 2006 .

The work of an intellectual is not to shape others' political will; it is, through the analyses that he carries out in his own field, to question over and over again what is postulated as self-evident, to disturb people's mental habits, the way they do and think things. -- Michel Foucault