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Primary & Secondary Sources

This guide will help you learn the difference between primary and secondary sources in various subject areas and provides resources for locating primary sources, both in the library and on the open web.

Primary and Secondary Sources Tutorial

Primary & Secondary Sources Tutorial

Navigate through the pages of the tutorial below to learn more about primary and secondary sources in different disciplines. 

This tutorial covers just a few of the many options & resources for finding primary sources, so be sure to contact your Fresno State subject librarian to discuss your research project. Our librarians are always happy to help.

This tutorial was created by Amanda Dinscore, Librarian at Fresno State, and is available to share & adapt with attribution under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

Sarah McDaniel, Librarian at Fresno State, is the current editor of this guide, and is available to make updates to the current guide.  

More About Primary and Secondary Sources

A primary source is an original material created during the time under study.

Primary sources can be original documents (such as letters, speeches, diaries), creative works (such as art, novels, music and film), published materials of the times (newspapers, magazines, memoirs, etc.), institutional and government documents (treaties, laws, court cases, marriage records) or relics and artifacts (such as buildings, clothing, or furniture).

Primary sources of information include:

  • literary works
  • original documents such as diaries, letters, original manuscripts
  • archival material, such as official documents, minutes, etc. recorded by government agencies and organizations
  • original research studies, also called empirical studies

Examples of primary sources

  • Artifacts
  • Books
  • Diaries
  • Ephemera
  • Journals
  • Ledgers
  • Maps
  • Letters
  • Manuscripts
  • Newsletters
  • Pamphlets
  • Photographs
  • Videos

Secondary sources put primary sources in context

They comment, summarize, interpret or analyze information found in primary sources. Secondary sources are usually written by individuals who did not experience firsthand the events about which they are writing.

Examples of secondary sources include:

  • academic books
  • biographies
  • journal articles
  • magazine articles
  • dissertations
  • theses
  • essays
  • encyclopedia articles

If you are uncertain about whether or not a source is primary or secondary, ask yourself the following questions. If you answer, “yes” to any of them, there is a good chance the source is primary.

  • Did the author personally witness or experience the subject in question?
  • Does the author know about this subject because of personal experience rather than having just read about it?
  • Is this source a diary, letter, memoir, autobiography, oral history, or interview of a person with first hand experience of the subject?
  • Is this source an official document or record published at the time of the event by the government, courts, or another organization?
  • Is this source a newspaper or magazine article written at the time of the event?
  • Is this a creative work such as a novel, poem, art or music piece created by a firsthand witness of the subject in question?
  • Is this an excerpt from a primary source, such as the constitution or a letter written by a Civil War soldier that has been imbedded in a secondary source, such as a textbook?Remember, secondary sources may include reprints of primary sources.
  • Is this an artifact or relic such as jewelry, pottery, clothing, music, art, architecture, dance or weaponry that was used by witnesses of the subject in question?
  • Is this a compilation of raw scientific data or statistics, such as census statistics published by the U.S. Census Bureau, that is being published without commentary or interpretation?

 

Discipline Primary Source Secondary Source
History Slave diary Book about the underground railroad
Art Original artwork created by an artist Article critiquing the piece of art
Literature Original poem written by a poet Essay on a particular genre of poetry
Political Science Treaty between two governments Essay on Native American land rights in the US
Science or Social Sciences Report of an original experiment Review of several studies on the same topic
Theatre Videotape of a performance Biography of a playwright

Table courtesy of http://www.bgsu.edu/colleges/library/assistance/page41012.html