Primary Sources in HOLLIS
collections" nor part of a dedicated information archive.
How can you search efficiently for them? Here are strategies to use in the catalog portion of our HOLLIS discovery system.
1. KEYWORDS FIRST, THEN RIGHT SIDE FILTERS
- Use dates strategically. The HOLLIS catalog is massive -- and old in the best sense. Publications produced during the era or time period you're studying may become visible that way. With smallish results, you can resort by date ascending to make the oldest items visible first.
- Use the Form/Genre limit to display materials by type. "Primary sources" will be identified with real granularity; they exist as everything from photographs to correspondence to diaries to clipping files and scrapbooks (for instance).
NB: this form/genre filter has been applied inconsistently by catalogers over the years, so use it judiciously as a marker of what's available to you.
2. LOAD A KEYWORD SEARCH WITH SPECIAL WORDS AND PHRASES
- Add a century marker to a keyword search (18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, for example).
- Try adding the keyword sources to a keyword string. This trick will sometimes help you pull up primary materials that have been collected and republished in book form or that have been reformatted (as microfilm or microfiche or in digital form).
- Some other words to try are anthology, collected, reader, documentary, documents
