What are Secondary Sources?
Secondary sources are materials that interpret, analyze, describe, or explain primary sources. Textbooks, encyclopedias, biographies, and journal articles are examples of secondary sources. These sources are "secondary" in that usually they are one step removed from the event about which they comment or analyze. Use catalogs and databases to find secondary source books and articles. These sources will build your background knowledge about your topic. Use them to inform yourself about what scholar's say about your topic.
What are Primary Sources?
Primary sources are materials produced by participants or observers at the time of an event or during a particular span of years. They are "original" in that the recording of the event or experience originates with the participants or direct observers. Some examples of primary sources are:
- Diaries, journals, memoirs, letters, autobiographies
- Official documents or records from government or private organizations (minutes, reports, etc.)
- Books, magazines, and newspapers produced at the time of the event
- Court decisions, transcripts, and other legal papers
- Research data (reports, market surveys, public opinion polls, statistics)
- Films, photographs, paintings, video recordings
- Novels, poetry, and plays
Importance of Primary Sources
Through the use of primary source materials, you develop skills for reading and understanding the subtext of cultural assumptions and ambiguities. You are exposed to the political, economic, cultural, or ethical context for historical peoples’ actions or decisions. Using primary sources in history transcends the role of just learning facts and figures. It encourages critical thinking skills; introducing you to issues of context, selection, and bias; to the nature of collective memory and to other like aspects in the construction of history. It allows you use the traces of the past to construct meaningful stories in the present.
