Search Primo, or Early English Books Online, or HathiTrust for the primary source you have selected for Research Project II.  You may find that your primary source is available in only one or in multiple formats.  Here are some formats you may encounter:

a.  Print or digital facsimile of the original edition in the original language.

Example:  Jane Sharpe.  The Midwives Book.  The link in this Primo record will take you to a digital facsimile in Early English Books Online.

b.  Print or digital facsimile of an early English translation of the source.

Example:  Mead, Richard, 1673-1754, Thomas Stack, and Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyā Rāzī. A Discourse On the Small Pox And Measles: to Which Is Annexed, A Treatise On the Same Diseases. 2d ed. London: Printed for J. Brindley, 1755.  This digital facsimile contains the first English translation of Al-Razi's treatise.

C. Print or digital facsimile of the source with a modern scholarly translation into English, along with annotations and contextual essays.

Example: An Aztec Herbal: The Classic Codex of 1552.

c.  Scholarly edition of the source (a scholar or group of scholars translate or update the language to modern English and provide annotations and context).

Example: Kepler.  Mysterium cosmographicum.  This scholarly edition is translated by A.M. Duncan, with additional contextual materials from two other scholars.

Tips for Using EEBO:

• Many of these texts use spellings and type that are no longer familiar to the modern eye.  To help your eyes and brain adjust, try:
  • Reading passages out loud.  As your ear hears the modern English, your eyes will adjust to the unfamiliar script.
  • Look for "TCP" in the EEBO record for the source.  TCP stands for "Text Creation Partnership," which is an ongoing project to provide transcriptions of works in EEBO.  While the transcriptions preserve the spellings and punctuation of the original, they are available in modern fonts, which can make reading easier.
• Do look at the full records for materials found in EEBO.  You can find out more about the printer, author, and other editions!

Tips for Using HathiTrust:

• HathiTrust offers two ways to search:  full-text and catalog.
  • Full text search is best for when you are looking for particular words or phrases.  You then can limit your results by date of publication.  So, for example, if you wanted to see how many sources use the word "alchemy" between 1700 and 1799, you could use the full text search option and then limit your search by date.
  • Catalog search is best when you know the author and/or title of the specific work you seek.  The results will show you one or more editions, which you can sort by date of publication.
• For materials that are in the public domain (generally, those works published before 1928), access to complete digital facsimiles is provided.
• For materials that are still under copyright, you can do limited full text searching to find out what in inside the books, but will then need to obtain the book through a Primo search.