Research Guides: Finding Primary Source Materials: Websites

Finding Credible Web Sources

Google Advanced Search
You can use Google Advanced Search to find credible internet sources by limiting search results.
- Choose a domain, like .edu, .gov, or .org, to filter out .com information.
- Explore limiting file type to .pdf to find documents that may have been professionally edited.

SIFT & PICK Fact Checking & Source Evaluation
A printable version of the SIFT & PICK approach to evaluating sources using lateral reading (SIFT) to fact check a source and vertical reading (PICK) to decide whether it is the best source for your needs.

Finding Credible Web Sources
Our Finding Credible Web Sources guide has more tips on searching the Internet.

Recommended Websites

Ad*Access -- Duke University's Digital Libraries Collection: Includes images of over 7,000 ads printed in the U.S. and Canada between 1911 and 1955.
The Avalon Project -- Yale Law School: Includes documents in law, history, economics, politics, diplomacy, and government from ancient times to the present.
Calisphere -- University of California: Includes over 150,000 digitized primary sources.
Remember.org -- This is one of several Internet collections on the subject and probably the best. Contains many documents and images of survivors, perpetrators, Holocaust deniers, liberators, etc.
EuroDocs -- Brigham Young University: Includes Western European historical documents.
GPO's Federal Digital System -- U.S. Government Printing Office: This resource provides free online access to historic and current official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government.
HathiTrust -- A collaborative repository of digital resources formed by the eleven libraries of the University of California and over 60 research libraries across the United States, Canada, and Europe.
The Internet Classics Archive -- MIT: Almost 400 English translations of classical Greek and Roman texts.
Internet Medieval Sourcebook -- Fordham University: Includes full texts of medieval sources and much more.
Library of Congress -- The oldest federal cultural institution includes millions of primary source books, photos, manuscripts, audio recordings, prints, films, maps, etc. On the Library of Congress home page you can browse the full catalog, digital collections, and open source resources.
Making of America -- University of Michigan: This project is a huge digital library of primary sources having to do with nineteenth-century American history.
Online Archive of California -- University of California: The OAC "provides free public access to detailed descriptions of primary resource collections" and "contains more than 220,000 digital images and documents."
The Perseus Project -- Tufts University: "An Evolving Digital Library on Ancient Greece."
Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection -- University of Texas: Includes historical maps from all over the world.
Transatlantic Slave Trade Database -- Emory University, and others: Includes both primary and secondary sources on "almost 35,000 slaving voyages."
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Primary Sources -- Includes original documents, photographs, film footage, music, and oral histories, as well as published materials such as books, periodicals, documentaries, and other resources.
World Digital Library -- Supported by UNESCO: This resource makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world.