SELECTED SOURCES AND TECHNIQUES: PRIMARY RESOURCES ON ST. PETERSBURG

Definitions

source - a document, person, or object from which information is derived

primary source - the immediate and direct exposure to the artifact (document, person, or object). Primary sources can be either published or unpublished.

published source - reproduced, issued and distributed in some form (paper, electronic media, microfilm) and usually held in more than one location.

unpublished source - existing in its original form and available in only one location.

secondary source - informative, but not directly exposed to the artifact, that is a review, criticism, or analysis

The Library of Congress in conjunction with its American Memory Project has a nice tutorial on primary sources (but with American examples) which will explain this for students of all levels. See: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/psources/source.html

Using Sherlock/OhioLINK/Worldcat

• Look for illus in the record. (However, a book with two imags will be marked illus.)
• Size of book -- Folio in the location box. The folio designation is given to oversized books
• Age of book -- Photography was invented in about 1839, prior to that woodcuts, engravings, etchings and lithographs were used. Books written about a place, person, event etc. become a primary source when written during a specific time.
• Use an official body (government, organization) as an author.
• Use certain subject sub-headings : sources, maps, atlas', personal narratives, archives, pictoral works, guides.
• Look for an artist, political figure, writer as an author.

Indexes to Major English Language Publications

19 Century Masterfile MiamiLINK

New York Times Index 1854 - King Index

Index to the Times London 1790 - King Index and King Circ

Indexes to Collections (on MiamiLINK)

Digital Media Center (DMC) from OhioLINK

AP Photo Archives

Indexes

Google.com: Images

AltaVista.com: Audio and Video image search

Mother of all Art and Art History Pages http://www.art-design.umich.edu/mother/vrref.html

Web Resources

See also Thinking Critically about World Wide Web Resources (Grassian)

Russian History on the Web http://www.russianhistory.org/ (See the sections: Primary Texts, Historical Images)

The Empire that Was Russia http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/

Russia and East European Studies Virtual Library http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/reesweb/

Offical Portal of the City of St. Petersburg http://wwweng.gov.spb.ru/gov

Academic History Info Gateway http://www.academicinfo.net/hist.html (see Russia section and especially digital archive)

Digital Librarian http://www.digital-librarian.com/ (see the section on images as well as doing searches for St. Petersburg and Russia)

Russian Historical Documents in English http://www.dur.ac.uk/~dml0www/Russhist.HTML

Historical Maps of Russia and East Asia http://www.feefhs.org/maps/indexmap.html

Rus Photohttp://www.friends-partners.org/oldfriends/mes/russia/history.html

Problems with primary sources on the Internet

http://staff.lib.muohio.edu/~presnejl/hstdoc/defprobs.html