Today, a wide variety of primary sources from all over the world have been digitized and made available online so you can view them anytime and from anywhere!
Start with the video below to get an overview of how to search for digitized primary sources. Then, explore UWM's diverse digital collections. Finally, check out tutorials for how to search a few other notable national and international digital collections.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Digital Collections provide quality digital resources from its academic libraries to UW faculty, staff and students, citizens of the state and scholars at large.
UWM's Digital Collections include more than 190,000 photographic images, maps, and books drawn from the collections of the American Geographical Society Library, the Archives, Special Collections, and the Curriculum Collection. Click on the link above to find a search bar for the entire digital collections, or scroll down on the page to select a particular collection to browse and search within.
The Digital Public Library of America strives to contain the full breadth of human expression, from the written word, to works of art and culture, to records of America’s heritage, to the efforts and data of science. Contains materials from all the UW System Digital Collections, Recollection Wisconsin, the National Archives and Records Administration, University of California System, the Smithsonian, and the New York Public Library.
Europeana enables people to explore the digital resources of Europe's museums, libraries, archives and audio-visual collections. It promotes discovery and networking opportunities in a multilingual space where users can engage, share in and be inspired by the rich diversity of Europe's cultural and scientific heritage.
Launched in 2009, the World Digital Library (WDL) was a project of the U.S. Library of Congress, with the support of UNESCO, and contributions from libraries, archives, museums, educational institutions, and international organizations around the world.