Library Research Tutorials

What are Primary Sources?

"Primary sources are materials in a variety of formats, created at the time under study, that serve as original evidence documenting a time period, event, people, idea, or work."  (Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy. 2018).

Primary sources can include (but are not limited to):

• first-hand narratives or stories (diaries, journals, correspondence, interviews, speeches...)
• material artifacts (maps, artwork, archaeological finds, clothing...)
• newspapers and magazines from the time of an event
• audio/visual materials (films, audio recordings, photographs)
• records and statistics (opinion polls, census data, government records, laws...)
• born digital items (emails, chat transcripts, digital photographs...)
• quantitative data (tests, surveys, scientific studies…)

What are Secondary Sources?

Secondary sources are materials that offer a commentary, description, criticism, evaluation, or analysis of a primary or other secondary source. 

Secondary sources can include (but are not limited to):

• textbooks
• reference works
• most scholarly books
• most scholarly journal articles

Common Examples of Primary Sources in Academic Subjects

It is common to associate the idea of using primary sources only with research in the humanities. However, primary sources exist in all academic fields and you will likely utilize them regardless of your academic major. Understanding the common types of secondary and primary sources in your field, will also help you understand the differences between these types of sources.

Can a Source be Both a Primary and Secondary Source? 

Yes. While I provided common examples of primary and secondary sources above, it is more complicated then that. Determining if something is a primary or secondary source will depend upon its original context and your research needs.

This is a complicated concept and it might help to think of it this way. There are ways to categorize sources that depend entirely on what the source is: is a it a book? Or a magazine? Or a peer reviewed journal? Or an encyclopedia? Or a web page? This is not how you categorize primary and secondary sources. Whether a source is a primary or secondary source relies entirely on how you plan to use or what you need from the source. Check out the examples below.

Examples of Primary and Secondary Sources

• A U.S. History Textbook from 1992, could be a:
  • Secondary source, if the researcher used the textbook to look up a fact or date about U.S. history.
  • Primary source, if the researcher was studying Critical Race Theory and wanted to see how the U.S. was teaching the civil rights movement in the 1990s.
• A newspaper article discussing the State of the Union speech delivered by a U.S. President, could be a:
  • Secondary source, if the researcher wanted the facts or a summary of the speech, in contrast the transcript or a video of the speech would be the primary source of the speech.
  • Primary source, if the researcher wanted public or media reactions to the speech or if the original speech has been lost and the newspaper article is the only evidence left of the original speech.

Why Use a Primary Source?

Secondary sources are amazing tools that synthesize existing research and scholarship on a topic. So why bother going to a primary source directly? What can they offer that a secondary source cannot?

Original Research: When you read a secondary source analyzing or interpreting a primary source, you are getting one scholar's perspective (both academically and personally) and analysis of a primary source. If you depend upon a secondary source, you are depending upon the assumption that scholars reading of a primary source matches your perspective, experience, and interest. And this is rarely, if ever, the case. If you go directly to a primary source, you may be the first person to look at it from your background or perspective. What do you think you'll find that others have ignored?

Uncovering Hidden Voices: Often scholars will approach a primary source with a specific research need and when they publish their findings, some voices in the primary source will be left out of their findings. Whose voices could have been ignored by other scholars in your field? Approaching a primary source without an established research goal is sometimes the best way to uncover people or ideas that have forgotten or ignored.

Empathy: Secondary sources, no matter how much they quote, will always remove you from a firsthand account of an event or experience. Your reaction and understanding from an era or event will change depending upon how you learn about it. The emotional connection to an event after reading a history textbook on World War II is not comparable to the connection you'll form after reading The Diary of Anne Frank. This idea also combines view of listening to Own Voices accounts. When learning about a topic, it is often the best policy to hear about the event from someone who experienced it.

Finding Primary Sources

Any source can be a primary source, it depends on how you plan to use it in your research. As such, how you search for a primary source will depend on your research topic and what type of source you are working with. Below you'll find on how to find primary sources in the library catalog, archival databases, and Google.

Library Catalog and Databases

There are four main ways to search the library catalog and databases for primary sources.

• Library Catalog Search: Sometimes, if you know exactly what you are looking for, you can find a primary source with a basic book search in the library catalog. For example, you can find Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or Frederick Douglass' Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by using the basic search bar in our library catalog for the author and title.

• Primary Source Search Terms: Search the library catalog for your topic (the broader the search terms the better) and a primary source term such as: documents OR testimonies OR voices OR personal narratives OR oral history OR letters OR speeches OR memoirs OR diaries.
  • Example: Open a new tab and follow the demonstration below for an example of how to perform this search. 
  • Go to the library's advanced search screen.
  • On the first line, input these search terms: "Civil War" AND "United States" AND women
  • On the second line, input the text: documents OR voices OR narratives
  • Click Search and review the search results. While not all of the results will be primary sources, many are.
• Subject Searching: Use the advanced search interface of the library catalog or database to search term "sources" under the search field drop down menu, select subject from the search field drop down menu. This will limit your search results to items that have been described by librarians as including sources on a topic. While it won't give you every primary source in a catalog and will also contain some secondary sources, it's a great starting tip. 
  • Example: Open a new tab and follow the demonstration below for an example of how to perform this search. 
  • Go to the library's advanced search screen.
  • On the first line, input these search terms: "Civil War" AND "United States" AND women.
  • On the second line, change the "field" drop down menu to "Subject" and insert the text: sources.
  • While not all of the results will be primary sources, many are.
• Searching Primary Source Databases: There are also databases that specialize in primary source material that you can search and browse. You can find these databases on the Databases A-Z page, and then use the Database Type drop-down menu at the top of the page to limit the databases to only primary source databases. Or, you may try limiting the results to only image databases or historical newspaper databases, it depends on what you are looking for. However, remember that any source can be a primary source so this may narrow your search too much and many databases include items that are both primary and secondary sources. So always take a few moment to identify and evaluate the source you are using. 

Citation Mining

Citation mining is a great way to find additional primary and secondary sources on a topic. A credible secondary source will base their research on both primary and secondary sources. So if you find a great secondary source on a topic, look at who the author cites, identify which the primary sources might be useful to you, and then find and evaluate those primary source yourself.

Don't simply copy/paste another author's references into your own work. You'll need to find and evaluate the primary source on your own because the other researcher might have been using the source in a different way then you, missed something, made a mistake, or left something out that will be critical to your research. 

Using Google to Locate Primary Sources and Archival Collections

The Internet can be an excellent place to find primary sources because millions of historical documents have been digitized over the years and are often available to you for free online. However, when searching the internet it is critical that you get your materials from credible and trusted sources, preferably from a library, museum, or government archive. If you aren't sure if a source is credible, ask a librarian.

Here are a few online search strategies that will help you find credible primary sources online:

• Search Terms: research topic (this could be an event, battle, era, person, law...) AND "primary sources" AND libguide
  • Sometimes there are entire webpages dedicated to collecting primary sources on a specific topic and/or person. LibGuides are what librarians call their research guides. So this search term, along with an accompanying .edu domain will usually indicate that a webpage is from a larger academic website and institution.
  • Example: check out this research guide from Christopher Newport University's library website of primary sources on Civil Rights in the United States. 
• Search Terms: research topic (this could be an event, battle, era, person, law...) AND "digital archive"
  • Digital archives are usually digitized documents from museums, libraries, and archival institutions. However, remember that anyone can post anything online, so double check that whoever is posting the digitized materials is a credible source. If you aren't sure if a source is credible, ask a librarian.
  • Example: Calisphere is an amazing database that compiles the digitized archives of museums, universities, and libraries from all of California.
• Domain Searching: At the end of a webpage's URL is a domain identifier, such as .com or .edu or .gov or .org. In your search results, it's a good idea to lean toward documents that are posted on educational websites (.edu) and government websites (.gov). However, this is not a perfect method for evaluating website. People often trust .org domains; however, anyone can purchase this domain, it does not signal any type of credibility or authority. Additionally, many museum and archives are valuable sources but will have a .com domain. When in doubt, ask a librarian.

Evaluating a Primary Source

It is a common misconception that we use primary sources so that researchers can go directly to the "truth" or "fact". Yes, primary sources are created at the same time as an event. However, all people have biases and agendas and are capable of misinformation. As primary sources are created by people (and people have chosen and selected which primary sources and voices have survived to today), assume that all sources have some inherent bias or agenda. The goal as a researcher is to investigate what that is, how it affects your research, and decide if and why you should use it.

5 Steps for Evaluating Primary Sources

Here are five key steps on how to evaluate a primary source. These are not all-encompassing and will change depending upon your research needs and the type of source, but they are a good place to start. The critical component in evaluation is to first answer the question and then to next follow up each question with, "what does that tell me?" or "why is this important?"

1. First Impressions

• Identify the type of primary source. (what is it? a letter, memo, speech, advertisement...)
• Before reading the primary source’s content: how can you describe it? (is it typed or handwritten, are there other marks like postage or office stamps, how many types of handwriting, is it edited, was it published, seals…)
• This gives you a wider picture of the item before looking at the details. What do the above questions tell you about your source?

2. Observe (who, where, when)

• Who created the primary source? (author, secretary, do they have a title?)
• Who was the source's intended audience? (scholars, shoppers, sailors, public, aristocracy...)
• Where was the source created?
• When was the source created?

3. Analyze (what)

• What is the source discussing?
• Summarize the contents. (briefly, 2-3 sentences)

4. Interpret (why and how)

• Why was it created?
  • What is the creator’s purpose or motivation? (agenda)
  • What is the creator’s point of view? (bias, perspective, opinion)
• Does the source reflect historical events, either implied or explicit?
  • Sources are not created in a bubble and they will be directly or indirectly affected by events surrounding them.
• Did you notice anything left unsaid in the document? 
  • What is not said is often more important (and more interesting) than what is said. It reveals a lot about a place, time, event, and people. This is where you learn about assumed knowledge or social norms for the creator or audience of the source.

5. Reflect

• Do you have any questions or comments after reviewing the source?
• What sparked your interest, surprised you, or confused you?
• This is the fun part! Take your interest and use it to craft your research question.

If you'd like examples and more information on how to evaluate a primary source, check out the video tab below. The video "How to Analyse a Historical Source" provides a slightly different method on how to analyze a primary source and can be helpful if you'd like another explanation for this critical skill.

• Advertisement for Cocaine Toothache Drops (1885). Retrieved from ArtStor, https://library.artstor.org/#/asset/28556929.
• Bauer, Susan Wise. The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome. New York: W.W. Norton, 2007.
• Goetz, Stewart, and Charles Taliaferro. The Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Religion. New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2021.
• Gores and Los Angeles Women's University Club. Los Angeles as it appeared in 1871. (1929). Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/75690623.
• Martino, Andy. Cheated: The Inside Story of the Astros Scandal and a Colorful History of Sign Stealing. New York: Doubleday, 2021.
• Miller, Kenneth R, and Joseph S Levine. Miller & Levine Biology. Boston, Mass: Pearson, 2010.
• Page from Frida Kahlo’s diary (1950). Retrieved from ArtStor, https://library.artstor.org/asset/ASCHALKWIJKIG_10313991599.
• The World Encyclopedia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
• Three Members of the St. Louis NAACP Holding Protest Signs (c. 1942-1950). Retrieved from ArtStor, https://library.artstor.org/#/asset/LOCEON_1039799159.
• Wine Cup for the Passover Meal (18th century). Retrieved from ArtStor, https://library.artstor.org/#/asset/ARTSTOR_103_41822003086293.