Use the Library Search - Advanced Search feature to find primary sources in the WMU Libraries. Here are some of the most helpful keywords to use:

• sources
• diaries
• letters
• "oral history"
• "personal narratives"
• interviews
• speeches
• transcripts

The trick is to combine one or more of these keywords with whatever topic you are researching.  For example:

• "cold war"  (HINT:  using the quotation marks will pick up the entire phrase)
• "oral history"

or the following search:

•  holocaust 
• "personal narratives" OR diaries OR letters OR sources

While not every single item that comes up is guaranteed to be a primary document, at least some of them should be.

Use MelCat and WorldCat to identify pertinent primary sources "out there" that are not owned by the WMU Libraries. 

Use the same search strategy and keywords described in the center box. 

You can request items directly through MelCat and through Interlibrary Loan from WorldCat. We will borrow the book(s) from another library and the service is FREE to you.