Primary Sources
Primary Sources are useful because they offer an original viewpoint on an event from a person who was there. Primary sources offer insight into why events occurred or why a person made a particular decision at a given point in time. Be aware that primary sources can be prone to biases or present inaccurate information.
Examples
- Newspapers
- Newsreels
- Oral Histories
- Maps
- Blueprints
- Autobiographies
- Records of Court Proceedings
- Speeches
- Church Records
- Business Records
- Correspondences
- Interviews
- Websites (in some cases)
- Artifacts
- Scholarly Journal Articles (in some cases)
Secondary Sources
Secondary Sources, based on primary sources, are useful because they expose the researcher to other people's viewpoints on a given event or person. They also provide the researcher with the names, dates and events related to a topic.
Examples
- Monographs
- Scholarly Journal Articles (in some cases)
- Second-Hand Accounts of an Event
- Biographies
- Documentaries
- Websites (in some cases)
References
Drexel University. “The Basics: Frequently Asked Questions About Archives.”
http://archives.library.drexel.edu/basicsfaq 2012.
Harvard University. “Frequently Asked Questions.”
http://hul.harvard.edu/huarc/faq.shtml (Last Modified September 2022).
Society of American Archivists. "A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology." http://www2.archivists.org/glossary (accessed on October 17, 2014).
St. Mary's University of Minnesota. "Primary vs. Secondary Sources." http://www2.smumn.edu/deptpages/tclibrary/tutorials/finding/primary.php (accessed October 7, 2014).