Primary Sources

Printed sources like books and magazines can be a treasure trove of information for historical research. Many of these sources are especially ripe for usage because until just a few years ago, they were relatively difficult to search within. With full-text searching now widely available, there is a huge new universe of primary sources easily available! 

Full-text digital coverage varies quite a bit, according to publication date:

• 1400s through 1800: books and magazines in English have been very thoroughly digitized, but access is usually through a specific database that is not free (EEBO). Other languages are often at least partially covered by national digitization projects in other countries. For more info, see the section below on Digitized Books Databases.
• 1800s through 1923: vast quantities of printed books, magazines and journals in English have been digitized by two major projects: Google Books and Hathi Trust. You are in luck if you're researching this time period! See the section below on Digitized Books Databases.
• 1923 and later: many books are partially searchable in Google Books but you'll only be able to see a "snippet" view of the results, due to copyright restrictions. This can still be useful for discovering good sources! But to see the full text of the book, you'll need to get it from a library. See Finding Physical Books, below.

Top two sources:

• HathiTrust (recommended): Millions of books & serials published mostly published between 1700-1923. (Most date from mid-1800s to 1923.) Contains fewer titles than Google Books, but Hathi's advanced search interface is vastly superior for historical research.  
• Google Books Advanced Search: Millions of books & periodicals mostly published between 1800-1923. Unfortunately searching by date is unreliable, so unless you are searching for a very uncommon keyword phrase, HathiTrust usually works better. 

Additional sources for English-language historic publications: 

• Early English Books Online (EEBO; requires subscription): Fantastic database covering nearly all surviving works that were published in English-speaking countries from 1400s-1700. Includes books, tracts, and more. Unfortunately, it is a very expensive database for libraries to access. The easiest access for Pacific students is to go to a library in the University of Oregon system (closest branch: Portland) and get on-site guest access (more info on guest access). 
• Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO; requires subscription): Great database for works that were published in English-speaking countries from 1700-1800. Unfortunately, like EEBO, it's expensive to subscribe. The University of Oregon subscribes to a combined database of 18th and 19th century books (ECCO-NCCO). The easiest access for Pacific students is to go the U.O. (closest branch: Portland) and get on-site guest access (more info on guest access). 
• Pacific University Boxer Search: Pacific University has access mostly to recent e-books published after 2000. These are usually not going to be good primary source document for historical research, but they can be good as secondary sources. 

Top two sources:

• Pacific University Boxer Search : This will search not only all the physical books at Pacific, but also all of those in the Summit network of over 35 other academic libraries in the Pacific Northwest, including UW, UO, OSU, PSU, etc. Notes regarding borrowing these items from other libraries:
  • A request to borrow from "Summit": most books that are considered non-rare will be ordered from the other libraries and delivered to Pacific within 2-7 days. You will receive an email notifying you that the book has arrived. This is very convenient!
  • Books that are blocked from being borrowed through Summit: rare, fragile and very expensive material is often blocked from being loaned through Summit. For these books, you may need to plan a visit to the library that holds the material. 
  • For more advice on finding & getting access to books/articles, including how to make a request through Interlibrary Loan, see this page on Getting Access.
• Worldcat : This is a "union catalogue" that allows you to search the holdings of nearly every academic library in the United States and Canada, plus many American public libraries and some major European libraries. This is a very powerful tool not only for finding specific books and serials, but also for answering questions like, "what was published on X topic between the years Y-Z". If you find something that you want to actually get access to: 
  • If the work was published between 1800-1923, try searching for it on Google Books and Hathi Trust: there's a good chance it's already been digitized!
  • Nearly everything published post-1900 can be borrowed through Interlibrary Loan. You'll have to fill out a form. Delivery time can range from a few days to a few weeks, depending on the lending institution. 
  • If it's a rare item that cannot be borrowed, you may need to visit the library in person. 

For advice beyond these two databases, please feel free to contact Pacific's librarian, Eva Guggemos.