Tip: To find databases containing primary sources, choose "Advanced Search" under the Databases tab. Select Type--Primary Sources.
Access UN
Use for: Identifying United Nations legislative documents
Tips: Scroll down the Newsbank page to select Access UN. If the documents are not full-text, take the citation to the Public Documents department to locate them.
American History in Video
Use for: Commercial and governmental newsreels, archival footage, public affairs footage, and documentaries covering 1492-2000
Tips: Use the Advanced Search; click Select Terms next to boxes to browse what's available
Archive of Americana
Use for: Several databases that form a collection of books, pamphlets, broadsides, newspapers, government documents and ephemera printed in America over three centuries.
Tips: For 20th century research, includes newspapers to 1922 and Serial Set to 1980.
Documents on British Policy Overseas
Primary source documents from Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office, shedding light on diplomatic history throughout the twentieth century.
Declassified Documents Reference System
Declassified documents from various government agencies, including the White House, the CIA, the FBI, the State Department, and others.
Covers documents issued 1905-2011, both the scanned original and the text.
Eur-Lex
Use for: Portal to European Union law: the Official Journal, treaties, case law, preparatory documents, and Parliamentary questions
Tips: For other European documents, see also the Council of Europe's site for the European Treaty Series and European Court of Human Rights.
HeinOnline
Use for: many US documents, including Foreign Relations of the US, Public Papers of the Presidents, Treaties and Agreements
Homeland Security Digital Library
Use for: Full text materials including government documents, research studies, CRS reports, GAO reports and testimony, theses and dissertations, case studies and grey literature. Links to related sites and news reports.
Tips: Search by keyword or browse by topic. Topics include: immigration, emergency management, intelligence, law and justice, economics, military, politics and government, public health, technology, terrorism, and weapons.
House of Commons Parliamentary Papers
Use for: Full text of Sessional Papers from 1801-1945, + index covering 1801-2004.
Tip: Duke owns microforms and/or print of other papers not included here – see the subject guide.
ProQuest Congressional
Use for: U.S. bills, laws, regulations, Congressional debate, hearings, and committee reports.
Tip: Print or carefully copy the citation if it's not full-text. Use the SuDoc # or Serial Set vol. # to locate publications in Public Documents.
National Security Archive
Use for: Declassified documents involving U.S. foreign and military policy since 1945. Primary documents include presidential directives, memos, diplomatic dispatches, meeting notes, independent reports, briefing papers, White House communications, email, confidential letters, oral histories, and other secret material.
Tip: The search defaults to searching across all collections. Choose Documents to get a search screen allowing you to choose and combine individual collections.
Original Sources
Use for: US and worldwide full text documents covering many disciplines.
Presidential papers not included in the Public Papers of the Presidents in print or on GPOaccess.
Tips: Browse from the box at the very top right, selecting US Presidential Papers.
Click the Search tab to search by Author, Title, Words, and select collections to search.
Primary Sources in U.S. History (LexisNexis Guides to Microforms)
Use for: Replicas, full text, or citations to a variety of primary sources including government documents, manuscripts and autobiographical accounts.
Focus is on African-American history and American women's history.
Tip: The microforms section is an index to selected collections. Search Duke's catalog by the title of the *collection* to see if we have it, then use the index to locate the reel/frame you need.
LLMC Digital (Law Library Microform Consortium)
Use for: Historic documents from the US Federal branches and their agencies, from or about selected foreign governments, and "multi-jurisdictional" collections--British Empire, Military Law.
Tip: Wait for the Search interface to fully load if you want to choose your combination of collections to search.
The Nation
Use for: Contemporaneous articles on current affairs from this liberal periodical
Tip: Covers 1865- present excluding the most recent 18 months
U.S. Congressional Serial Set (Readex) or in ProQuest Congressional
Use for: reports, documents, and journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives
Tip: The print Serial Set is available in Perkins' Public Documents collection.
