Subject Guides: Primary Sources: Best Bets

Major Primary Source Database Publishers for the humanities and social sciences

There are five major primary source publishers: Adam Matthew, Alexander Street, Gale Primary Sources, History Vault (Proquest), and Readex. The links below will take you to each publisher's portal where you can cross search all of their databases. If you are seeking video, try Alexander Street first.

Canadian Content

Limited Canadian content in Primary Source Best Bets
For more options see HISTORY - CANADA - HISTORIC / PRIMARY SOURCES

Adam Matthew (over 60 primary source databases)

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Primary source collections in the social sciences and humanities. Collections the University of Alberta Library subscribes to are also listed individually in the database lists.

SUBJECTS
Area Studies	Literature
Cultural Studies	Politics
Empire and Globalism	Theatre
Ethnic Studies	War and Conflict
History

Alexander Street, a Proquest Company (over 60 databases)

How to search Alexander Street (4 min video)

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This platform provides access to material in a wide range of formats, including books, documents and other primary source material. Audio and video collections include both educational and performance content.

Best bet for streaming historical content
Over 60 primary source databases

SUBJECTS
Art & Design	Literature & Language
Art & Architecture	Music & Performing Arts
Fashion Studies	Personal Interest
Diversity	Personal Interest
Health Sciences	Science & Engineering
History	Social Sciences

Gale Primary Sources (over 40 databases)

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An integrated research platform that allows searching over 40 Gale primary source collections. Newspapers, Audio, Images, Magazines, Manuscripts, Maps, Monographs, Periodicals, Photographs, Videos

Content spanning many centuries, geographic regions and subject areas

DATABASES CATEGORIES
Early Modern to Modern Period	Legal Studies
Nineteenth Century	Newspapers and Periodicals
Contemporary Studies

History Vault (Proquest History Vault)

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Digitized letters, papers, photographs, scrapbooks, financial records, diaries, and many more primary source materials taken from the University Publications of America (UPA) Collections, University Microfilms International (UMI) research collections, and additional collections scanned from the original documents.

Best bet for USA content
Hundreds of databases

SUBJECT AREA MODULES
Civil Rights and the Black Freedom Struggle	American Indians and the American West
Southern Life, Slavery, and the Civil War	American Politics and Society
Women's Studies	International Relations and Military Conflicts
Workers, Labor Unions, Progressives, and Radicals	Latinx History

Readex AllSearch

Readex AllSearch This link opens in a new window
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Centuries of primary sources: books, pamphlets, newspapers, government documents, and more

READEX DATABASES
African American Periodicals	Immigrations, Migrations and Refugees
America's Historical Imprints	The Cold War: East-West Tensions
America's Historical Newspapers	American Proxy Wars: Korea and Vietnam
American Race Relations	Pravda Archive, 1959-1996
Apartheid	Propaganda and the Chinese Press
Civil Rights in America	World Protest and Reform Movement
Foreign Broadcast Information Service	World Newspaper Archive

Primary Source Databases (A-Z List)

All Primary Source Databases

Primary Source Databases

University of Alberta Library has over 500 databases containing primary source content. How do you choose?

Go to the A-Z Databases where you will find three search boxes. The default for the middle box is "All Database Types." Change to "Primary Sources" then choose a Subject area and/or keywords
Ask Us or contact your Subject Librarian.