Finding Secondary Source eBooks
How do I know this is a secondary, scholarly source? Most of our eBooks in the history subject area will be secondary sources and most are scholarly. Collections of letters, autobiographies, children's books and historical fiction will not meet your requirements, so watch out for those!
Our library catalog makes that easy! Here's a way to use it to find secondary-source eBooks. Here's how:
1)Visit Moye Library's Homepage.
2) Type your subject in the search box and select Books under the search box. (See example below.)
3) This search will find you books all over the world, so you will want to limit the results to what we have available online. (It works a lot like filters on Amazon.) If you are using a tablet or phone, the filters will appear at the top of the search results screen.
4) First, Limit to University of Mount Olive, Moye Library and eBooks. This finds eBooks that we have available for your to read online.
5) You can limit to History and Auxiliary Science under the Subject filter if you want to narrow your results to books on the subject of history. (You may need to scroll down to see this filter.)
Primary vs Secondary Sources
Is it a primary source or a secondary source?
| Primary Source | Secondary Source |
| Firsthand account (created by someone who was there or lived during the time period) | Secondhand account (usually about an event in the past) |
| Created at the time of the event/ during that time period | Usually created after an event has taken place, may reference primary sources, but also includes other sources and commentary |
| Does not interpret the event, time period, or subject | Provides an extra layer of commentary about the event, time period, or person that the work describes |
|
Examples: court proceedings, newspaper articles, letters, diaries, photographs, art, eyewitness accounts, research where an experiment was performed or direct observations were made, interviews, videos, online communication (emails, listservs, blogs, social media comments, Instagram posts about a current event*, most data and statistics *Please check with your professor before you choose to use social media publications as a source. |
Examples: most books about a topic that are NOT published diaries, letters, or autobiographies; most scholarly articles about a topic, data analysis/interpretation, documentaries |
Finding Primary Sources at Moye Library
Below are several library databases that you can use to find primary sources. Some books in our library will also be primary sources. Examples of primary sources that are also books would include autobiographies, diaries, and collections of letters.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowThe leading resource for scholarly research covering a majority of academic topics.
To find primary source documents in Academic Search Complete, go to the Advanced Search page, type in your keywords, and choose "Primary Source Document" under the "Document Type" filter on the bottom right of the Advanced Search page. - Black Freedom Struggle in the United States This link opens in a new windowProQuest invites you to explore the freely available Black Freedom Struggle website, featuring expertly selected primary source documents. Visitors will find historical newspaper articles, pamphlets, diaries, correspondence and more from specific time periods in history marked by the opposition African Americans have faced on the road to freedom.
- DigitalNC This link opens in a new windowExplore the history and culture of North Carolina through original materials from cultural heritage repositories across the state.
- Digital Library on American SlaveryDigital Library on American Slavery (DLAS) is a freely available and searchable database focused on bringing to light the names of enslaved individuals from court petitions, historical newspapers, and deed records held by Register of Deeds offices across North Carolina.
- Digital Public Library of America This link opens in a new windowThe Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) provides access to millions of photographs, manuscripts, books, sounds, moving images, and more from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Find primary sources to use in school projects, academic research, family history research, and more.
- Historic North Carolina Digital Newspaper CollectionNewspapers.com North Carolina Collection. 3.5 million pages of digitized content from over 1,000 NC county newspapers.
- North American Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new windowWomen's writings from the Colonial period to 1950 in their original formats. Includes writings by Abigail Adams, Louisa May Alcott, Susan B. Anthony, Clara Barton, Dorothea L. Dix, Julia Ward Howe, and more.
- Digital Collections, Library of Congressall collections that have been digitized at the Library of Congress, includes images, documents, maps, etc.
- Documenting the American SouthDocumenting the American South (DocSouth) is a digital publishing initiative that provides Internet access to texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture. Currently DocSouth includes sixteen thematic collections of books, diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, oral history interviews, and songs.
