Skip to Main Content

Research eSkills: Primary vs Secondary Sources

Research eSkills for the Digital Scholar

What are Primary & Secondary Sources of Information?

1. Primary sources are original documents or objects, that have been left behind by participants or
observers. They make a personal connection to the past. Examples: Diaries, speeches, manuscripts, letters, wills, interviews, autobiographies, official records, news film footage, government documents. One must carefully evaluate and interpret those sources to understand their value and limitations. 

Primary sources are typically historical documents or creative works like:

To determine whether or not an item is a primary source, ask how soon, after the event, the information was recorded. 

2.  Secondary sources interpret and analyze primary sources.  A secondary source is one that was created later by someone who did not experience first-hand or participate in the events or conditions you’re researching.  Secondary sources are generally scholarly books and articles.

Also included would be reference sources like like history books, encyclopedias, dictionaries, biographies. A good secondary source uses primary sources as evidence.

Wheel of Sources!

What is a Primary Source? - Further Information!

Primary Sources: What Are They?

National History Day, defines primary sources as follows:

Primary sources are materials directly related to a topic by time or participation. These materials include letters, speeches, diaries, newspaper articles from the time, oral history interviews, documents, photographs, artifacts, or anything else that provides firsthand accounts about a person or event.

Some materials might be considered primary sources for one topic but not for another. For example, a newspaper article about D-Day (which was June 6, 1944) written in June 1944 was likely written by a participant or eyewitness and would be a primary source; an article about D-Day written in June 2001 probably was not written by an eyewitness or participant and would not be a primary source.

Similarly, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, delivered soon after the 1863 battle, is a primary source for the Civil War, but a speech given on the 100th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg in 1963 is not a primary source for the Civil War. If, however, the topic was how Americans commemorate the Civil War, then the 100th anniversary speech would be a primary source for that topic. 

Are interviews with experts primary sources? No, an interview with an expert (a professor of Civil War history, for example) is not a primary source, UNLESS that expert actually lived through and has firsthand knowledge of the events being described.

If I find a quote from a historical figure in my textbook or another secondary source and I use the quote in my project, should I list it as a primary source?No, quotes from historical figures which are found in secondary sources are not considered primary sources. The author of the book has processed the quotation, selecting it from the original source. Without seeing the original source for yourself, you don't know if the quotation is taken out of context, what else was in the source, what the context was, etc.

From:Teachinghistory.org. Primary Sources: What Are They?

Secondary Sources: What Are They?

In contrast, a secondary source of information is one that was created later by someone who did not experience first-hand or participate in the events or conditions you’re researching. For the purposes of a historical research project, secondary sources are generally scholarly books and articles. Also included would be reference sources like encyclopedias.

For example, the book University of Illinois, 1894-1904: The Shaping of the University , published in 2000, could be used as a secondary source to learn about the UI around the turn of the twentieth century.

For secondary sources, often the best sources are those that have been published most recently. If you use a secondary source that was published decades ago, it is important to know what subsequent scholars have written on the topic and what criticism they have made about the earlier work or its approach to the topic.

Definition of Secondary Source:

https://www.library.illinois.edu/village/primarysource/mod1/pg2.htm

How to Locate Primary Sources!

Your professor asks you to locate primary source materials on a specific time period, what do you do?

USE GOOGLE IMAGES:

1. Well, first of all identify what your professor is asking you to do. For example, your professor asks for primary source material for the "100 Years War" or as it is found on most of our databases - "Hundred Years' War"
2. If you are not sure what this war is about, then look for that information in a secondary source like an encyclopedia or a reference source.
3. I located secondary source material in GALE Ebooks or CREDO Reference which identify this particular war.
4. So now, that you know what the war is about you can begin looking for "primary source" material on it.

5.You can immediately do a Google Search to see what you can find there by typing in quotes "100 Years War" and then click on Images (located underneath the Google Search bar), instead of searching all of Google.

6. This will bring up all types of images on your search topic. You can see some primary sources most of them are artworks. 

7. You can further refine your search by typing "100 Years War" AND letter     or   "100 Years War" AND artifacts    or    "100 Years War" AND canon  OR helmet OR artillery OR other type of physical object or materials used during that time period to locate primary sources.

8. You will find plenty of primary source materials by using Google Images and your topic.

USE YOUR LIBRARY DATABASES:
1. Use ARTStor to locate images, art, artifacts, and other primary source material by doing a broad search on your  topic.  Ex.  "100 Years War"

2. Use the A-Z Databases: Primary Sources list of databases to locate primary source materials on your topic.