The Web Library:
Building a World Class Personal Library with Free Web Resources
Online companion to the book. Frequently updated: last update = 12-13-05 copyright Nick Tomaiuolo 2005
Primary Sources
Avalon Project
Important documents in American history, politics, and government from the
pre-18th century to the present from the Avalon Project at the Yale Law School.
American Memory from the Library of Congress
Mode of
Access: Browse Collections or search by keyword.
Typical
results: pamphlets, articles, letters, maps, sheet music, etc.
Example:
“The race problem.” Letter to the editor.
Chicago Tribune. 1899.
DocLinks
Extremely well organized by
topic and date, DocLinks is a database of over 1,000 annotated Web links to
primary documents online for the study of U.S. history and Western Civilization.
Providing instant, single-click access to an unparalleled collection of
documents, DocLinks includes speeches, legislation, treaties, social commentary,
United States Supreme Court decisions, essays, travelers’ accounts, personal
narratives and testimony, newspaper articles, manifestos, visual artifacts,
songs, poems, and more.
EuroDocs: Primary Historical Documents from Western Europe
(from European Studies Bibliographer at Brigham Young University Library)
Mode of
access: Select country, browse documents.
Typical
results: pacts, charters, travel writings, posters.
Example:
“A View of the present state of Ireland” by Edmund Spenser (1596).
Internet Public Library
Mode of
access: Choose Arts & Humanities/History
Search
terms: primary sources
Results:
238 entries (choose “view all 238 sources”)
Example:
Soviet History Internet Archive “A
valuable collection of primary source documents concerning the early history of
the
USSR.
Also includes pictures, maps, and links to related sites.”
Librarians’ Index to the Internet
Search
terms: primary source
Typical
results: links to sites that, ideally, hold and display primary sources.
Example:
AmDocs: Documents for the Study of American
History
"A directory of primary
documents available on the Web. Browse by time period, beginning with 1492 and
continuing into current times. Includes inaugural addresses, diary extracts,
treaties, letters, speeches, and more." Maintained at the Anschutz
Library, University of Kansas.
Making of America
Making of America (MOA) is a digital library of primary sources in American
social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction.
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Library