Using and Evaluating Primary Resources

• See also Evaluating Internet Resources

• Guidelines from the Library of Congress
  • What Are Primary Sources?
  • Analysis of Primary Sources
  • Types of Primary Sources

• Examples from the Library of Congress
  • Primary Source Resources
  • Resources by Chronological Period

• Library Research Using Primary Resources, Berkeley

General Reference and Online Texts

• Librarians' Index to the Internet

• Bartleby.com online references includes encyclopedias, thesaurus, dictionaries, quotations, style, factbooks, gazeteer, etc.

• FirstGov portal to U.S. government sites

• Web Based Resources - "An Educational Gateway to the best Electronic Journals and Selected Websites" on a wide variety of topics, from history to zoology

• World Wide Web Virtual Library

• My Virtual Reference Desk, best concentration of references on the WWW, although connection sometimes too busy
  • First Things First, the opening screen for my browser -- news, weather, etc.
  • Quick Reference/Research, almanacs, search engines, reference books online, etc.
  • My Virtual Newspaper, wire services, business, technology, international, etc.
  • Electronic Texts on the Internet, comprehensive list
  • Weather Info Sites

• N.Y. Times topical index of past articles

• Online Books
• Electronic Texts on the Internet, comprehensive list

• Project Gutenberg, bunches of free books online

• Books on the Internet, U. of Texas Library Online, great list of collections of online books
• The On-Line Books Page, U. of Penn.
• Online Texts Collection, Internet Public Library

DoD 101 and Other Basics

• See also National Strategies - Security, Cyber, WMD, Homeland Security

• See also DoD and Service Visions, including the National Military Strategy (NMS), Future Warfare Visions, and service posture statements

• See also Transformation of War & U.S. Military

• see also Glossaries below

• See also Military Theory

• See also Military History Basics

• See also Basics, on Index to Internet

• DoD 101, by DoD
• Defense Almanac
• DoD 101, by FAS (no endorsement implied)
• DoD Dictionary and Acronyms

• JFSC Pub 1, The Joint Staff Officer's Guide 2000 local copy, in bite size pieces

• Unified Command Plan (UCP) - shows global areas of responsibility for the unified commands

• Acronym Finder -- has more than a dozen meanings for AFSC, most of them military -- DoD Dictionary above has one

• National Guard 101, statistics & programs, 7.2 Mb
• Reserves 101 ... (local copy)

• Army Almanac
• How the Army Runs, Army War College publication
• Army organization diagram, but unit type/size - click on each unit name to get more info

• Navy Almanac
• Basic Military Requirements
  • Basic Military Requirements, NAVEDTRA 14325, is a self-study training manual (TRAMAN)/nonresidsent training course (NRTC) that covers the basic knowledges required of the men and women of the U.S. Navy and Naval Reserve.

• 50 Questions Every Airman Can Answer, from the AF Doctrine Center
• 50 More Questions Every Airman Can Answer, from the AF Doctrine Center

• Space Almanac, from Air Force Magazine, including historical stuff

• Air Force Space Command Almanac (note: 6 Mb) (local copy, 2004-2005, 2 Mb)

• The Book - annual organizational summary of the AF by Airman magazine
• Air Force Almanac, Air Force Magazine

• Air & Space Power Course, interactive, from Air University, intended for Air Force officers O-3 thru O-5 selected for joint assignments -- includes lessons on air power theory, air power doctrine, doctrine-strategy link, tenets of air power, space ops, info ops, core competencies, joint doctrine, doctrine of other services, and expeditionary ops

• Airpower Myths and Facts, book by Meilinger
• Ten Propositions Regarding Airpower, by Meilinger, School of Advanced Airpower Studies (SAAS), in Airpower Journal (now Air and Space Power Journal), Spring 1996
• Twelve Principles Emerging from Ten Propositions, by Szafranski, in Airpower Journal (now Air and Space Power Journal), Spring 1996

• Competing Theories of Airpower: a Language for Analysis, by Faber, in Aerospace Power Chronicles

• Clausewitz basics

Style and Author Guides

• Air University Style & Author Guide

• See also interactive courseware guides at Educator and Developer Resources on the Education and Technology page.

• Copyright Information
  • 10 Big Myths About Copyright Explained
  • United States Copyright Office

News

• Current News Early Bird, daily collection of U.S. and world news articles and media transcripts, available to DoD personnel at the office or away from the office

• Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Online -- "FBIS collects and translates current political, economic, technical, and military information from the media worldwide for the U.S. government. Access to FBIS information is limited to the U.S. Government agencies and their contractors."

• First Things First -- news, weather, etc. with links to all the national sources
• My Virtual Newspaper, wire services, business, technology, international, etc.
• Newspapers on the Web, listing by AU Library

• Air Force News
• DefenseLINK News, updated each 20 minutes

Acronyms

• Acronym Finder
• DoD Dictionary and Acronyms

Researching

• See also Doing Research page

• Librarians' Index to the Internet

• Air University Research Web
• search all the papers at above site - replace terrorism with your search word/phrase

• Air University Research Information Management System (RIMS)

• Research Resources, as listed by Air War College

• USAF Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), with topics, grants, sponsors, guidance, senior service school papers, etc.

• Military Education Research Library (MERLN) Network

• Bibliographies Compiled by AU Library

• Marine Corps Research Center (MCRC), Marine Corps University

• Some basic searching tips
• Military Research on the Internet, by Bird, from Army History magazine -- dated, but still may give you some ideas for searching, especially the non-Web portions of the Net

Bibliographies

• Library of Congress
  • Web Guides by the Library of Congress Digital Reference Team
  • Library of Congress Bibliographies, Research Guides and Finding Aids
  • Library of Congress Main Reading Room Bibliographies and Guides
  • Library of Congress Preservation Bibliographies
  • other Library of Congress bibliographies, including Braille and Talking Books

• Air University Library bibliographies

• Marine Corps University (MCU)
  • The Alfred M. Gray Marine Corps Research Center bibliographies - combines many sources of bibliographies

• U.S. Army War College Library bibliographies
• U.S. Army Military History Institute bibliographies
• U.S. Army Center of Military History
  • Online Bookshelves

• National Defense University (NDU)
  • Joint Forces Staff College (JFSC) bibliographies

• Dudley Knox Library bibliographies, Naval Postgraduate School (NPS)
• Naval Historical Center bibliographies

• Pentagon Library bibliographies

• National Library of Medicine resource lists and bibliographies

• Online Bibliography of Military Leadership, over 4,000 references, listed at Arizona State U.

• various NASA bibliographies

Glossaries

• see also DoD 101 and other basics for almanacs, tutorials, etc.

• DoD Dictionary and Acronyms
• Joint Forces Command Glossary

• U.S. Government Manual
  • Appendix A - Commonly Used Abbreviations and Acronyms
• Glossary of Congressional and Legislative Terms

• Glossary of Terrorism Terms

• Protocol for the Modern Diplomat, State Department - includes Glossary of Diplomatic Terms at the end
• Arms Control and Disarmament Glossary of Terms, State Department

• NATO Glossary of Terms and Definitions
• Glossary of Military Terms - in English and Spanish, from the US Army School of the Americas (USARSA)

• United Nations Treaty Reference Guide
• UN Treaty Handbook Glossary
• Glossary of UN Peacekeeping Terms

• Glossary of Terms for Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Agents and Defense Equipment, from US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine (USACHPPM) (local copy)
• Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Glossary

Air University Library Resources

• Air University Library, mondo cool, adding more stuff constantly, especially worth a visit if you are on campus at Maxwell AFB, AL
  • Newspapers online, list by AUL
  • Military Magazines and links to civilian
  • Titles of Military Periodicals, with links to those available online
  • Research links
  • Bibliographies
  • Multimedia links
  • Map links
  • Online map request
  • AU Library Faculty Support

Other Library Resources

• DoD Libaries, a list

• Librarians' Index to the Internet

• Library of Congress Online, incl search tools and historical photos (ex. Civil War, look under American Memory section)
  • Library of Congress Research Tools
  • Library of Congress, Country Studies, all aspects, from historical to cultural to political -- built-in search engine -- recently added the countries of Central Asia, although info often is only as new as 1996

• The British Library

• Books on the Internet, U. of Texas Library Online, great list of collections of online books
• Internet Public Library (IPL)

• World Wide Web Virtual Library

• Joint Electronic Library

• Pentagon Library
• Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) Library Services
• Marine Corps University Libraries
• U.S. Army War College (USAWC) Library
• Naval War College Library
• The Ralph J. Bunche Library of the U.S. Dept of State
• Joint Forces Staff College Library
• Navy Department Library
• Combined Arms Research Library (CARL), Ft Leavenworth, KS
• National Defense University Library
• Schuyler Otis Bland Library, US Merchant Marine Academy
• Search of Center of Military History Library, scroll down to the link
• Army Doctrine and Training Digital Library, repository of approved training and doctrine info
• Nimitz Library, US Naval Academy
• Dudley Knox Library, Naval Postgraduate School

International

• War, Peace, and Security Web Server, in English, from Canadian Forces College

• Defence Journal: Mind is the Ultimate Weapon, "monthly magazine dedicated to projecting the Armed Forces of Pakistan in their True Perspective"

Congress and Public Law

• see also Military Law and Legal Links

• THOMAS - legislative information on the Internet

• U.S. Code, Legal Information Institute (LII), Cornell U.

Joint/DoD Pubs and Forms

• Lists of deleted joint pubs

• DoD and service Forms

• Joint Doctrine Electronic Information System (JDEIS), with enhanced search capabilities
  • This site provides the Joint Community a responsive user-friendly tool for rapid access to US joint doctrine and related materials. The site makes it possible to rapidly research key extracts of joint doctrine, access joint publications and related materials, and link to other websites and data collections. JDEIS is sponsored by the Joint Staff, J-7 Joint Doctrine, Education, and Training Division (JDETD)

• DoD Directives, Instructions, and Publications

• Future Warfare Visions
• Joint Doctrine Home Page
  • Joint Doctrine Process
  • Joint Publications, downloadable
  • DoD Dictionary of Military Terms
  • Joint Electronic Library
  • Joint History Publications
• JFSC Pub 1, The Joint Staff Officer's Guide 2000
• JFSC Pub 1, The Joint Staff Officer's Guide, local copy, in bite size pieces

• Joint Force Quarterly, home page
  • Joint Force Quarterly, cumulative index
  • Since search engines will take you straight to JFQ articles, which for some reason stopped putting dates at the page bottoms, following are issue dates (were hidden in JFQ Table of Contents file each undating issue) - 40=1stQtr06(resumed dating the pages with quarter and year, but for month you still have to go to the Table of Contents), 39=Oct05, 38=Jul05, 37=Apr05, 36=Dec04, 35=Oct04, 34=Jul03

• McNair Papers index, Institute for National Strategic Studies, NDU

• Strategic Forum index, of 4-6 page papers, INSS, NDU

• NDU Press

Air Force Pubs and Forms

• Forms

• Air Force Departmental Publishing Electronic Publications (ex. AFIs)

• AF Doctrine Hierarchy
• alternate for Air Force Doctrine Documents from AF Doctrine Center, posted at Joint Electronic Library

• Air Force Policy Digest

• Airman Magazine, Magazine of America's Air Force
• DoD and Military E-Journals, Air University Library list of online military magazines and other military periodicals

• Strategic Studies Quarterly (SSQ)

• Air and Space Power Journal, formerly Aerospace Power Journal, formerly Airpower Journal
  • Air and Space Power Journal, cumulative index
  • Air and Space Power Journal, in Arabic
  • Air and Space Power Journal, in Portuguese
  • Air and Space Power Journal, in Spanish
  • Book reviews, grouped by topic, VERY handy
  • Chronicles Online Journal , Online companion to Air & Space Power Journal

• Air University Review, Jan-Mar 1987 and before (became Airpower Journal in 1987) - can pick issue to view
  • Air University Review, cumulative index, Jan-Mar 1987 and before, adding continually to work back to 1947 - to early 1970s so far

• Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), US Air Force Academy

• Air University Press
• AU Library list of military periodicals links
  

Army Pubs and Forms

• Forms

• Official Army Publications Sites
  • Army Publishing Directorate
  • Official Department of the Army Administrative Publications and Forms, including Army regulations (ARs)

  • Army Doctrinal and Training publications (except engineering & medical), including field manuals (FMs) (just plug in the FM number you seek)

  • Army Engineering publications (except administrative)
  • Army Medical publications (except administrative)

• alternate for Army doctrine pubs, posted at Joint Electronic Library

• Soldiers Magazine, U.S. Army's official magazine
• DoD and Military E-Journals, Air University list of online military magazines and other military periodicals

• Strategic Studies Institute, Army War College

• Parameters, Army War College journal
  • Parameters, Army War College journal, cumulative index of articles and reviews

• Military Review, the Professional Journal of the United States Army, also available in Spanish and Portuguese
  • Military Review, index of 1997-current -- Sorry, no longer available from Military Review.

Navy Pubs and Forms

• Navy Directives, OPNAV and SECNAV

• alternate for Navy doctrine pubs, posted at Joint Electronic Library

• All Hands, magazine of the U.S. Navy
• DoD and Military E-Journals, Air University list of online military magazines and other military periodicals

• Naval War College Review

• The Newport Papers, Naval War College, listing of the 75 page (ave.) issue-based papers

• Naval War College Press

Marine Pubs and Forms

• Marine Corps Orders and Directives Online
• Doctrine Division, Marine Corps Combat Development Command

• alternate for Marine Corps doctrine pubs, posted at Joint Electronic Library

• Marines Magazine, official magazine of the Marine Corps
• DoD and Military E-Journals, Air University list of online military magazines and other military periodicals

NATO references

• NATO On-line library

• NATO Handbook

• NATO Review, "the Alliance's flagship magazine on current policy issues" - available in more than 20 languages

• NATO Issues page

Government Accountability Office (GAO) -formerly General Accounting Office

• GAO Home Page, with links to many reports and publications

• GAO Reports on the Military, as compiled by the FAS
• See also Selected GAO Reports

Congressional Research Service (CRS), a division of the Library of Congress

• whole set of current reports and issue briefs
  • CRS reports courtesy Congressman Mark Green
  • CRS reports courtesy Congressman Christopher Shays
• The above Congressional sites were rendered dead in late Oct 03, when it was decided the public should no longer be able to download these Library of Congress reports for free. However, you can still get each report (by e-mail or post) by paying $29.95 each (as of 6 Nov 03) to Penny Hill Press. The links below are to sites which post, for free, at least some of the CRS reports. Since none of these sites is CRS itself, currency is an issue -- whether/when new reports (updated ones and newly created ones) are added to these partial lists.

• Air War College - more than 1000 selected CRS reports on Homeland Security, Terrorism, Africa, Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, Latin America, WMD, etc.

• selected CRS reports posted at State Dept

• Thurgood Marshall Law Library, U. of Md. School of Law - CRS Reports in Homeland Security/Terrorism and Health Law & Policy

• Federation of American Scientists (FAS) - one of largest selections of CRS reports
  • selected CRS reports on Military and National Security, posted by FAS
  • selected CRS reports on Intelligence and related issues, posted by FAS
  • selected CRS reports on Nukes, Chem, Missiles, and Proliferation, posted by FAS

• CRS Reports, select index by CNIE (Committee for the National Institute for the Environment)

• The Memory Hole, a response to the CRS door closing

• Search for CRS reports - just add key words and/or the number (for example, RL31232 )

Quotes

• DA Pamphlet 600-65, Leadership Statements and Quotes (local copy)

• MILITARY AIR POWER: The CADRE Digest of Air Power Opinions and Thoughts, military quotes book, by Lt Col CHARLES M. WESTENHOFF, 1990, (MS Word), searchable using the Find feature in Word or browser [Zipped file] [PDF file]

• Logistics quotes (local copy), posted by Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP) (DOC version)

• Thesauri and Quotations, My Virtual Reference Desk

• The Columbia World of Quotations
• Simpson's Contemporary Quotations, 1950-1988
• Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 1919

• The Quotations Page - over 2800 authors

• LitQuotes - literary quotes on wide range of topics

• Quotes on Listening, by International Listening Association (some GOOD ones)

• quoteland.com, variety of quotes organized in several ways

Biographies

• Lives, the Biography Resource

• Air Force Library -- Biographies
• For senior officers (especially AF generals) just type "general" and then the first and last name into Google

• Biography/Who's Who, My Virtual Reference Desk
• Biographical Dictionary, with over 23,000 searchable bios
• Biography, 20,000+ short ones
• American Airpower Biography, over two dozen pioneers and leaders, nicely done by Col Phillip Meilinger

• Winston Churchill Home Page, also good example of site layout
• The Rise of Adolf Hitler, in 24 chapters online
• Alexander the Great Project
• Biographical Dictionary, with over 23,000 searchable bios

Speeches

• President George W. Bush, 20 Sep 2001 Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People, includes creation of the the Office of Homeland Security (local copy)

• President Ronald Reagan - Berlin, "Tear Down This Wall" (local copy)
• President Ronald Reagan - 40th Anniversary of D-Day, Pointe du Hoc (local copy)

• Online Library of Famous Speeches, at The History Channel

• Great Speeches Collection -- historical and recent

• Air Force Library -- Speeches by AF leaders
• Defense Issues, text of speeches

Copyright & Cyber Law

• See Copyright Issues and Solutions

• See Congressional Research Service reports

• See Plagiarism and copyright in the information age

• AF Instruction 51-303, Intellectual Property, Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights (local copy)

• Cyberlaw Encyclopedia, computer and info tech law references
• CyberSpace Law Center (law about cyberspace)
• An Intellectual Property Law Primer for Multimedia and Web Developers, by Brinson and Radcliffe - "This article may be copied in its entirety for personal or educational use (the copy should include a License Notice at the beginning and at the end)."

• Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School
• Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society

• Intellectual Property Law, WWW Virtual Library -- select intellectual property law from the topic list

Overall/Collections re: Online Periodicals/Books

• Air University Research Information Management System (RIMS)

• AU Library list of military periodicals links
• Bibliographies Compiled by AU Library
• Air University Press, incl some online books

• Electronic Texts on the Internet, comprehensive list from My Virtual Reference Desk

• World Wide Web Virtual Library

DoD Papers/Articles by cumulative indices

Cumulative indices below make it easy to search/peruse. Remember, Ctrl-F will do searches just about anywhere. You might want to sometimes just scroll thru the indices as well -- this can often lead to the finding of articles you didn't know you needed and weren't even searching for.

• Joint Force Quarterly, home page
  • Joint Force Quarterly, cumulative index
  • Since search engines will take you straight to JFQ articles, which for some reason stopped putting dates at the page bottoms, following are issue dates (were hidden in JFQ Table of Contents file each undating issue) - 40=1stQtr06(resumed dating the pages with quarter and year, but for month you still have to go to the Table of Contents), 39=Oct05, 38=Jul05, 37=Apr05, 36=Dec04, 35=Oct04, 34=Jul03
• Parameters, Army War College journal

• Strategic Studies Quarterly (SSQ), Air University
  • strategic level articles and book reviews
• Air and Space Power Journal, formerly Aerospace Power Journal, formerly Airpower Journal
  • Air and Space Power Journal, cumulative index
  • Air and Space Power Journal, in Arabic
  • Air and Space Power Journal, in Portuguese
  • Air and Space Power Journal, in Spanish
  • Book reviews, grouped by topic, VERY handy
  • Chronicles Online Journal , Online companion to Air & Space Power Journal
• Air University Review, Jan-Mar 1987 and before (became Airpower Journal in 1987) - can pick issue to view
  • Air University Review, cumulative index, Jan-Mar 1987 and before, adding continually to work back to 1947 - to early 1970s so far
• Military Review, the Professional Journal of the United States Army, also available in Spanish and Portuguese
  • Military Review, index of 1997-current -- Sorry, no longer available.
• Naval War College Review
  • Naval War College Review, index of 1948-present -- Sorry, appears to be no longer available.
• McNair Papers index, Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS), NDU
• Defense Horizons index, NDU
• Strategic Forum index, of 4-6 page papers, INSS, NDU
• Strategic Studies Institute, Army War College
• The Newport Papers, Naval War College, listing of the 75 page (ave.) issue-based papers
• Naval War College Press
• Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), US Air Force Academy
• Air University Press
• AU Library list of military periodicals links
  
• NDU Press

Foreign Military Studies Office, US Army

• Foreign Military Studies Office (FMSO)
• Table of Contents of Foreign Military Studies Office (FMSO) research links
• Products menu has products by region and by topic

Historical Documents

• Core Documents of U.S. Democracy, links to key docs available online, from the Government Printing Office
• Analyzing Primary Sources--National Archives Resource Worksheets
• History in the Raw, National Archives article about using primary sources
• U.S. History Resources by Chronological Period, from colonial times to present, from National Archives

• Presidential Libraries, contact info from National Archives

• American Memory, Library of Congress, Historical Collections for the National Digital Library
  • Historical Military Affairs documents, LoC, such as papers from Washington and Lincoln and Wilson, and pages from Patton's diary for March,1943
  • Historical Diplomacy and Foreign Policy documents, LoC
  • Using Oral History, Lesson Overview, short course on using interviews, Library of Congress
  • Citing Electronic Sources, examples from the Library of Congress

• World War II
• The Marshall Plan, info from the National Archives Library
• Japanese Instrument of Surrender
• FM 100-20, Command and Employment of Air Power (local copy), War Department Field Manual, 21 July 1943

• World War I
• TR 440-15, Fundamental Principles for the Employment of the Air Service (local copy), Training Regulation 440-15, January 26, 1926

• Civil War
• The Emancipation Proclamation, from National Archives (local copy)
• The Fight for Equal Rights: Black Soldiers in the Civil War, from National Archives

• U.S. Constitution
• Hypertext Projects, U. of VA, incl Federalist Papers, de Tocqueville, American slave narratives, Turner's The Frontier in American History, and classic American literature
• Constitution of the United States, and Amendments, hypertext version by Emory Law School
• The Constitution of the United States, and associated material, from National Archives
• The Bill of Rights, and associated material, from National Archives
• Amendments 11-27 to the Constitution, from National Archives

• Declaration of Independence
• The Declaration of Independence, and associated material, from National Archives (local copy of declaration)

• Other
• Launching the New United States Navy, documents about the start of the Navy, from the National Archives
• The Magna Carta, from National Archives, incl discussion of its influence on U.S. Constitution (local copy)

• See also History Resources

[return to top]