There are several methods to identify published primary sources using Knox Primo
A. Find document collections on a topic. There are some specific terms that mark a book as being primary source material. Use any of the following terms as search terms in your searches.
| correspondence | letters |
| papers | journals |
| diaries | personal narratives |
B. Find autobiographical material. Get familiar enough with your topic to know the principle individuals involved and then search the catalog using the names of these individuals as authors.
C. Find "sources." The term "sources" is indicative of official documents or first-person accounts. These can be most any kind of publications, from eye-witness accounts to publications from government agencies. Use the term "sources" in the SUBJECT index, combined with other terms, as in this example:
D. Find books with early publication dates. This could be most any kind of a source: contemporaneous accounts, histories, document collections, etc. Search for these kind of sources in library catalogs using specific keywords that describe your topic. Specific geographical terms work well (Arizona, Dakota, etc.). Use the SUBJECT index:
Then, limit your results by using the Creation Date filter in the left panel:
