Using Primary and Secondary Sources

What Are Primary and Secondary Sources

Primary sources are original records, or first hand accounts of events and can be letters, personal journals, diaries, interviews, memoirs, files, reports, maps, photographs, films, videos or sound recordings, news transcripts, and broadcast tapes. The information they contain is original and has not been rewritten or reinterpreted by someone else. An article written at the time an event occurred which provides first hand accounts can be used as a primary source. Ph.D. dissertations, theses, and journal articles, which present original research are considered primary resources. Other primary sources including diaries, letters, memoirs, are also re-published as books, and there is an increasing number of web sites that offer digital versions of primary sources.

Secondary sources, often produced sometime after an event has occurred, interpret, analyze, and comment on primary sources. They are often books, interpretive articles from journals, magazines, and newspapers, reviews, etc.

However the category of primary or secondary is often determined by how the source is being used. Often newspapers are considered secondary sources as journalists report, analyze, and interpret events and the experience of others. Newspapers can also be used as primary sources. If you are researching how American attitudes on welfare spending have changed during the past twenty years, newspaper editorials can serve as primary sources of public opinion. Librarians and your instructor can help you identify primary and secondary sources for your projects.

Primary and Secondary Sources: Guides

Identifying Primary and Secondary Sources: A Preliminary Guide - Indiana University Libraries

Primary Sources Research - Yale University Library

Useful Subdivisions to Identify Primary Source Material - Library of Congress Subject Headings

Primary and Secondary Sources

Scholarly vs Popular |
Primary & Secondary Sources | Create
Annotated Bibliographies
Evaluate Sources | Cite Your Sources | ERes - Electronic Reserves