AFAM 013 / ENGL 005 Counternarratives: Black Historical Fictions: Researching with Primary Sources

This is a library research guide meant help students in AFAM 013/ ENGL 005 locate primary and secondary source materials related to their course available via Yale University Library.

Using Special Collections at Yale

What are primary sources? Primary sources provide firsthand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic or question under investigation.

They are usually created by witnesses or recorders who experienced the events or conditions being documented. Often these resources are created at the time when the events or conditions are occurring, but primary sources can also include autobiographies, memoirs, and oral histories recorded later.

- Primary Sources at Yale

Untitled silhouette accompanying the poem, Eve Remembering

Creator: Kara Elizabeth Walker

Silhouette accompanying poem "Eve Remembering" in Copy 133 of Toni Morrison's Five Poems (Las Vegas: Rainmaker Editions, 2002)

Call Number: JWJ Zan M8338+2002F

How to Find Primary Sources at Yale

Search Strategies and More
Tips on searching for primary sources in the Yale catalog, examples of how to perform a search for a certain format or material, how to search for primary soruces using subject headings, and how to use Archives at Yale

Identifying Primary Sources

Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources
A description of what primary sources are by subject and discipline and a guide to search strategies for locating them.

Resources

Archives at Yale
A searchable database of collections found in Yale’s libraries, museums, and archives.
Digital Collections at Yale
These resources are typically online exhibits or specially selected portions of a collection from a library, archives, or museum. It is important to recognize that these resources are sometimes only a sliver of the materials from a collection. The Digital Collections provide access to selections of digitized collection materials from across Yale’s repositories.