| Locating Primary Sources |
Guides to conducting primary researchThese guides describe what sorts of documents are available, particularly in public repositories such as courts and town record offices, how to gain access to them and what sort of information they will provide. These works were written primarily for genealogists, but are a good source for anyone conducting primary research.
Subject Guides
National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections
The National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC) is available both in print and on-line. NUCMC is a guide to thousands of manuscript collections in the United States housed in thousands of archives and libraries. NUCMC can be accessed by subject, personal name and corporate name. In the paper version each of these areas is in a separate index with the descriptions of the collections in volumes arranged by year. It is important to understand that NUCMC indexes the names of individuals or institutions mentioned in collections and who have written letters that appear in a collection. Thus, if you are looking for the papers of Frances Perkins you may find five or six collections listed in the index. One or two of these may represent Frances Perkins's own papers, but the others are likely to be the papers of people she corresponded with that contain a few letters by her. Although the printed version was discontinued after 1993, it is advisable to check both the online and paper versions due to searching difficulties with the online version.
National union catalog of manuscript collections. Washington : Library of Congress, MH/Main Reference Z695.83 .N36 1993
Other Subject Guides
American women and the U.S. armed forces : a guide to the records of military agencies in the National Archives relating to American women. Compiled by Charlotte Palmer Seeley ; revised by Virginia C. Purdy and Robert Gruber. Washington, DC : National Archives and Records Administration, 1992. MH/Main Reference CD3028.W6 S44
Guide to records in the National Archives, New England Region. Washington, DC : National Archives and Records Administration, 1989. MH/Main Reference CD3023 .U55 1990
Guide to British naval papers in North America. Compiled by Roger Morriss ; with the assistance of Peter Bursey. London ; New York, N.Y. : Mansell, 1994. MH/Main Library VA454 .G85 1994
Guide to materials for American history in Russian archives. Frank A. Golder ... Washington, D.C., Carnegie institution of Washington, 1917-37. MH/Main Cutter F83 6G5 v.
Guide to research collections of former United States senators, 1789-1995 : a listing of archival repositories housing the papers of former senators, related collections, and oral history interviews. Compiled by Karen Dawley Paul ; Diane B. Boyle, editorial assistant ; prepared under the direction of Kelly D. Johnston, secretary of the Senate. Washington : G.P.O. : For sale by the U.S. G.P.O., Supt. of Docs., 1995. MH/Main Reference CD3043 .P39
These guide attempt to list (and sometimes index) all of the holdings within a particular repository (manuscript libraries, archives or historical society). Guides to repositories can be very useful, but it is important to remember that they are dated and may not represent the current holdings of the repository in question.
Online Guides
Many repositories now list all or part of their holdings online in searchable Websites. The most complete list of archives Websites is Repositories of Primary Sources at the University of Idaho.
Printed GuidesThe Five College Archives and Manuscript Collections have finding aids to their collections online at http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/index.html You can also visit each repository's Website independently:
University of Massachusetts Amherst Archives and Special Collections
Some other local repositories also have some form of online guide to primary sources:
The Jones Library Special Collections in Amherst
The Forbes Library in Northampton
American manuscript collections in the Huntington library for the history of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, compiled by Norma B. Cuthbert. San Marino, Calif., The Huntington library, 1941. MH/Main Library Z6621.S227
The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, a guide to its collections. New Haven : Yale University Library, c1974. MH/Main Library Z733 .Y18 1974
The card catalog of the manuscript collections of the Archives of American Art. Supplement 1981-1984. Wilmington, Del. : Scholarly Resources, 1985. MH/Art Reference Z6611.A7 A72 1980
Catalogue of the manuscript collections of the American Antiquarian Society. Boston : Hall, 1979. MH/Main Reference Z881.W67 A43 1979
Collections of the Rhode Island Historical Society. [S.l. : s.n.], 1827-1902. (Providence : John Miller) 10 v. ; 22 cm.Vol. 1-v. 10. MH/Main Cutter F83wR 8R3 v.
Guide to manuscript collections in the National Museum of History and Technology, 1978. [Washington] : Smithsonian Institution Press, 1978. MH/Main Library T180.W3 N376
National bibliographic databases
There are currently two national bibliographic databases: OCLC and RLIN. These databases contain thousands of cataloging entries for books, audio and video tapes, maps, manuscript collections, archival records and rare books.
OCLC primarily contains description of non-primary materials while RLIN is almost totally made up of entries for primary materials. Despite this, it is important to search both databases when conducting a comprehensive search since many institutions that hold primary sources (such as Mount Holyoke) are not RLIN members and thus enter their holding in OCLC. RLIN also contains entries for some foreign institutions. While archival and manuscript materials in RLIN can be searched using the NUCMC search form, this search excludes other types of primary materials represented in RLIN such as rare books, photographs and other special collections. Searching these full databases is complicated and there is no direct access to them for individual researchers. If you wish to search these databases please ask a Reference Librarian for assistance.
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