The place to go to begin your library research is the Library Gateway.  This site is fairly intuitive, but if you are having problems finding what you need, see if any of the following guides are of use to you:

Online Catalog or Help Finding books in our library

Journal and Article Locator or Finding specific articles

Online Journals and Databases or Finding a specific journal or database

What are primary sources?

If you are seeking to learn about the past, primary sources of information are those that provide first-hand accounts of the events, practices, or conditions you are researching. In general, these are documents that were created by the witnesses or first recorders of these events at about the time they occurred, and include diaries, letters, reports, photographs, creative works, financial records, memos, and newspaper articles (to name just a few types).

What is a scholarly resource? 

Scholarly sources (also referred to as academic, peer-reviewed, or refereed) are written by experts in a particular field and serve to keep others interested in that field up to date on the most recent research, findings, and news. These resources will provide the most substantial information for your research and papers.  When a source has been peer-reviewed it has undergone the review and scrutiny of a review board of colleagues in the author's field. They evaluate this source as part of the body of research for a particular discipline and make recommendations regarding its publication in a journal, revisions prior to publication, or, in some cases, reject its publication.