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PLSC 4346: Movements and Protests: Primary Resources

Search and Evaluation Strategies

  • Use good secondary sources as clues to finding primary sources.
  • Include keywords like interview, letter, archive, digital library, digital collection, newspaper when searching for primary sources. With these kinds of searches keep your keywords broader. For example, you might try "Czechoslovakia communism archive digital" in Google.
  • See if your primary source has been used as a source by authoritative authors. Was it used as a source in a well regarded news organization? Are scholars citing the source? Try searching for the source in Library Search.
  • Some primary sources may include misinformation or bias, but they may still be useful to you as evidence. Be sure to know and explicitly state the context of how you are using it.

Newspapers

Looking at newspaper coverage from the time period is a good way to find primary resources.

  • Look for local coverage from the region and time period you are studying, but it may not be in English.
  • Look for major newspapers in English that have international coverage.

Social Media

Social media can be a good resource for primary resources, however there are some challenges.

  • People communicate on private networks, delete their accounts, or delete posts. Search to see if an archival or research institution has an archive of social media from the events you are researching.
  • Beware of bots or other disinformation actors.
  • People tweet in various languages, so you need to speak the language or find an effective way to translate it.
  • A search engine like Google may or may not index the social media platform you want to search (or it may only search a short period of time).
  • Social media platforms don't always have good search tools.