Research Guides: Clark Honors College Research Guide: News, Data & Other Primary Sources

Data Sources

Finding Data & Statistics
by Kathy Stroud Last Updated Jan 16, 2025 702 views this year

Social Explorer This link opens in a new window
Maps and reports based on U.S. Census and other data sources, 1790 to present.
ICPSR This link opens in a new window
Collection of computer-readable social science data.
Data can be used for both research and instructional activities. Studies are comprised of documentation, data (may include versions ready formatted for SPSS or Stata), and program code. You will need to register from a UO IP address to download data.
Sociometrics. Data. This link opens in a new window
Social science data archives with more than600 premier datasets and over 275,000 variables.

Other Primary Sources

UO Special Collections and University Archives
Special Collections and University Archives, on the 2nd floor of Knight Library (front of the building) has millions of primary sources for you to explore! The collections are especially strong on Oregon-based topics, but there are items from around the world. Visit them whenever they are open and they will help you find what you need.
The Internet Archive
A non-profit digital library offering free universal access to films, images, archived websites, and more.

Final Note:
Many universities and organizations have digitized many items from their local Special Collections & Archives, and searching the open internet will often find these high quality collections. Try adding keywords to your search like "digital archive," or "university," to your searches to narrow your results down to these academic collections (and to get rid of some of the wacky results that the rest of the internet might give you.)

And don't forget - you can always ask for help! emp@uoregon.edu - Elizabeth

News, Data & Other Primary Sources

Use the menu on the left to find sources for current and historical news, data, and primary sources.

What is a primary source?

A primary source is "first-hand" information, sources as close as possible to the origin of the information or idea under study. Primary sources are contrasted with secondary sources, works that provide analysis, commentary, or criticism on the primary source. Primary sources can include written works, recordings, or other source of information from people who were participants or direct witnesses to the events in question. Examples of commonly used primary sources include government documents, memoirs, personal correspondence, oral histories, and contemporary newspaper accounts. They also can include images, advertisements, reviews, costumes, and documentation of stage performance.

Newspapers & Magazines - Current

Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
Articles, editorials, and reviews published in approximately 200 ethnic and minority newspapers, magazines and journals published in the U.S, dating back to the mid-1990s.
Searchable in both English and Spanish.
Factiva This link opens in a new window
Factiva is a research platform providing access to over 33,000 global news sources, including newspapers, magazines, and journals in 32 languages from over 200 countries. It offers millions of corporate profiles and advanced tools for analyzing media coverage.
Limited to four simultaneous users. Please logout when you have finished. Text or data mining is prohibited in the Factiva database.
MAS ultra. School edition This link opens in a new window
Provides full text from 700 popular periodicals.
New York times (digital reproduction, 2008 - present) This link opens in a new window
Digital reproduction of microfilmed edition. New content is added to the database after the newspapers are microfilmed, so currency usually runs 6-12 weeks behind.
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Nexis Uni™ features more than 15,000 news, business and legal sources from LexisNexis®—including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790—with an intuitive interface that offers quick discovery across all content types, personalization features such as Alerts and saved searches and a collaborative workspace with shared folders and annotated documents.

Newspapers & Magazines - Historical

American Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines, and historically significant periodicals, covering 1740-1900.
Chicago Defender (1910-1975) This link opens in a new window
Leading newspaper of the black community.
The newspaper was a proponent of The Great Migration, the move of over 1.5 million African-Americans from the segregated South to the industrial North from 1915 to 1925. It reported on the Red Summer race riots of 1919, and editorialized for anti-lynching legislation and the integration of blacks into the U.S. military.
Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980 This link opens in a new window
Newspapers published between 1808 and 1980 that chronicle the daily life, cultural heritage and world views of Hispanic communities in the U.S.
Features Spanish-language newspapers and titles published bilingually in Spanish and English.
Historic Oregon Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Historic Oregon Newspapers provides digitized versions of selected Oregon newspapers published between 1846 and 2017. Approximately 200 newspapers are included in this collection. Dates of coverage vary from newspaper to newspaper.
Los Angeles Times (1881-1997) This link opens in a new window
Historical analysis of the development of California and the Pacific Rim with a focus on immigration issues, coverage of the early days of the film industry, and coverage of Native American culture and society.
New York times (digital reproduction, 1851-2015) This link opens in a new window
Digital reproduction of the NY Times, with full page and article images as well as searchable full text back to the first issue.
Newspapers.com: University of Oregon (1851-1980) This link opens in a new window
Provides access to a growing collection of historic newspapers published in Oregon. Access on campus and off-campus to current UO faculty students and staff.

Please note: We also have hundreds of local Oregon newspapers and other collections on microfilm in Knight Library. So if you are looking for information about Oregon, please visit the Microforms area of Knight Library.

Need Help?

Humanities Librarian

Chloe Barnett

she/her

Email Me

Subjects: Academic / Interdisciplinary, Honors College, Writing / Composition