Introduction
Archives and rare books are fascinating to work with and they can inspire scholarly and artistic endeavors of all kinds.
The modules in this book are designed to lead you on your path to becoming a better independent researcher. By watching the tutorials, reading the texts, and following along the practical exercises we prepared for you, you will gain an understanding of the primary source repositories at USC Libraries and how to navigate them, you will learn what defines an archive and a rare book, you will be able to efficiently search and locate primary source materials, both physically and electronically, and you will be able to critically evaluate primary source materials by understanding underlying concepts such as biases, privilege, and archival silences.
Let's get started!