Editing Primary source (section)

==Finding primary sources==
Although many primary sources remain in private hands, others are located in [[archives]], [[libraries]], [[museum]]s, [[historical societies]], and [[special collections]]. These can be public or private. Some are affiliated with universities and colleges, while others are government entities. Materials relating to one area might be located in many different institutions. These can be distant from the original source of the document. For example, the [[Huntington Library]] in California houses many documents from the United Kingdom.

In the US, digital copies of primary sources can be retrieved from a number of places. The [[Library of Congress]] maintains several digital collections where they can be retrieved. Some examples are [http://www.memory.loc.gov American Memory] and [[Chronicling America]]. The [[National Archives and Records Administration]] also has digital collections in [http://digitalvaults.org/ Digital Vaults]. The [[Digital Public Library of America]] searches across the digitized primary source collections of many libraries, archives, and museums. The [[Internet Archive]] also has primary source materials in many formats.

In the UK, the [[The National Archives (United Kingdom)|National Archives]] provides a consolidated search of its own catalog and a wide variety of other archives listed on the Access to Archives index. Digital copies of various classes of documents at the National Archives (including wills) are available from DocumentsOnline. Most of the available documents relate to England and Wales. Some digital copies of primary sources are available from the [[National Archives of Scotland]]. Many County Record Offices collections are included in Access to Archives, while others have their own online catalogs. Many County Record Offices will supply digital copies of documents.

In other regions, [[Europeana]] has digitized materials from across Europe while the [[World Digital Library]] and [[Flickr Commons]] have items from all over the world. [[Trove]] has primary sources from Australia.

Most primary source materials are not digitized and may only be represented online with a record or [[finding aid]]. Both digitized and not digitized materials can be found through catalogs such as [[WorldCat]], the [https://catalog2.loc.gov/ Library of Congress catalog], the [https://www.archives.gov/research/catalog/ National Archives catalog], and so on.