How to Identify Online Digital Primary Sources
Primary Sources at Yale: Identify Types and Formats (Yale University)
This site provides an excellent summary description of the types and formats of primary sources students will find in libraries, archives, museums, and online.
How to Use Online Digital Primary Sources
How to Read a Primary Source (Bowdoin College)
Excellent substantive outline on how historians interpret and analyze primary sources.
Working with Primary Sources (Bowdoin College)
Excellent summary outline that reviews paraphrasing and quoting sources and the distinction between the two. The site also reviews proper citation.
How to Find Online Digital Primary Sources
Primary Sources on the Web: Finding, Evaluating, Using (ALA, Reference and User Services Association)
This brief guide is designed to help students and researchers find and evaluate primary sources available online. The site also includes useful bibliographies.
History Hub (National Archives and Records Administration)
History Hub is an online community portal that helps researchers search for historical records. It is a place to ask questions, share information, work together, and find people based on their experience and interests. Experts from the National Archives as well as other experts, history enthusiasts, and citizen archivists are available to help with your research. History Hub offers tools like discussion boards, blogs, and community pages to bring together experts and researchers interested in American history. Think of it as a one-stop shop for crowdsourcing information related to your research subject.
ArchiveGrid is a guide to archives and special collections around the world. It includes over 5 million records describing archival materials, bringing together information about historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more. ArchiveGrid helps researchers looking for primary source materials held in archives, libraries, museums and historical societies.
Internet History Sourcebooks Project (Fordham University)
The Project is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented cleanly (without advertising or excessive layout) for educational use. Primary sources are available here primarily for use in high-school and university/college courses. The site includes documents associated with a "western civilization" approach to history that documents Byzantine, Islamic, Jewish, Indian, East Asian, and African history. You will also find many documents especially relevant to women's history and LGBT studies.