Making the Past Digital

“An astonishing amount of the analog historical record has already become digital in the past decade.” (Digital History). It is true that today anyone can look up most of the historical past on the internet. In one site or another you can typically find the information needed to give you a general background of an event. However, as I began to advance within my history degree my professors were no longer looking for general information but specific sources from primary text. I quickly discovered that the only way to find these sources was typically either by purchasing them online, doing extensive searching for a free way to receive them that might not be reliable, OR to go to the library.

The Fairfax city library has provided easy access information for me over the past year in a way that the internet has never been able to. While surfing the web I typically feel lost. Like there is so much useless information I need to sift through to find the valuables I don’t even know where to start. But the library has sources I know I can trust no matter what and the librarians are an instant way to find what you are looking for. While many people may consider this an old fashion way of researching, I still assert that it is the only way to find free and true primary sources. As a history major this is something that can not be replaced.

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