Worldcat
Catalog of libraries in US, Canada and beyond.
Center for Research Libraries (CRL)
A consortium of North American universities, colleges, and independent research libraries that acquires and preserves newspapers, journals, documents, archives, etc. They can be borrowed on extended loan via Interlibrary Loan.
Note: The best way to search the catalog is to search first for a keyword and then to go through the results looking for one item that meets your needs. Once you have found that item, click on the title and then click on the tab titled "Subjects." This will give a list of official Subject Headings that are linked to all the books on that subject. If you click on the Subject Heading that describes your area of interest, it will lead you to additional relevant resources.
For example:
If you wanted information on migration to Los Angeles you might search the KEYWORDS migration AND Los Angeles
If you then click on an interesting title and look at the subject headings you would see:
Los Angeles (Calif.) -- Emigration and immigration
Immigrants -- California -- Los Angeles
Go to Advanced Search in the online catalog
Under Subject enter "sources," "personal narratives" or "diaries"
Under Keywords enter terms related to your topic
Find Subject Headings related to your topic that include words such as "-diaries" or "-personal narratives"