Research Guides: Primary Sources: A Research Guide: Find Books

Healey Library Catalogs

UMBrella This link opens in a new window
Search Healey Library Resources including articles, books, ebooks, journals, maps, videos and recordings.
WorldCat @ UMass Boston This link opens in a new window
Combined online catalog of over 9,000 libraries customized to connect directly to Healey Library holdings & interlibrary loan (ILL).

Recommended E-book Collections

Full-text electronic books can be found by searching UMBrella. These collections are recommended:

Early English Books Online (EEBO), 1475-1700 This link opens in a new window
Digital access to more than 100,000 literary and historical classics.
Ebook Central This link opens in a new window
Ebook Central provides authoritative, full-text e-books in a wide range of subject areas along with powerful tools to find, use, and manage the information.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
Every significant English-language and foreign-language title printed in Great Britain during the eighteenth century, along with thousands of important works from the Americas.
Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG) This link opens in a new window
User registration now required for access.
A digital library of Greek Literature from Homer to the fall of Byzantium in AD 1453.

Healey Library Print Collection

Finding primary sources can be challenging depending on the subject area. Some primary source material is available through the library databases such as federal and state laws, newspapers and news transcripts, original research, and data. Many items cannot be found in the databases and require finding collections or website devoted to the particular topic. For outside resources look at the Open Access tab or Statistics and Data by Topic. The reference librarians are happy to help you search for material, just Ask a Librarian!

Using certain keywords or phrases will help direct you to primary sources. These terms can be used as part of a general search or added to Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). Adding them to a subject search in a library catalog will focus your results.

For example, searching the subject Soviet Union -- Foreign relations -- United States -- Sources will have fewer but better results than searching for Soviet Union -- Foreign relations -- United States.

Try the following subheadings in UMBrella or UMass Boston WorldCat.