Primary Sources

Howdy! Welcome to the Proctor Library's guide to what primary sources are and how to find them.

If even after you have consulted this guide you are confused as to whether or not a source would be considered a primary source for your paper, it is always advisable to talk to your professor.

All of the librarians on staff, not just Miss Owens, will be happy to assist you if you wish to consult with a librarian. It is best to reach out to the liaison librarian for your major as he or she will have the best knowledge of what is an acceptable primary source for you. To find out who your liaison librarian is, please consult the table on the Library Instruction, Liaisons & Purchase Requests page.

Everyone.

Regardless of your major it is important when writing a paper to know what your professor wants when they mean a primary resource. The purpose of this guide is to help you differentiate between primary, secondary, and tertiary sources, and how to find primaries when searching in the Library's Catalog or one of the databases.

Most of the resources you will use in your academic career will be secondary sources, but some assignments force you to locate primaries because it is critical to rely upon eyewitness accounts or testimony.

Primary

Oral histories, autobiographies, letters, diaries, photographs/artwork, broadsides, musical scores, some posters, some newspaper articles, some books, some recipes, some objects, and some movies/TV footage, i.e. live WWII footage, or fall of the Berlin Wall (good rule of thumb: written about, presented by, or produced by an eyewitness)

 

Secondary

Biographies, critical essays, commentaries, some newspaper articles, most books, most journal articles, some posters, some recipes, some objects, and movies/documentaries (good rule of thumb: written based mostly on primary sources and some secondary)

 

Tertiary

Student papers, some books, some journal articles, some newspapers articles (good rule of thumb: if it is reliant solely or almost completely on secondary sources)

 

Anthologies

Anthologies are books that can house primary and/or sources. Two examples of an anthology that would be a primary source is when there is an introduction and then each chapter is a facsimile (copy) of a primary document, or, when there are sections with an explanatory essay followed by facsimiles (copies) of a group of related primary documents. Two examples of secondary anthologies are when they are written in honor/memory of a deceased esteemed colleague or are essay collections on a topic that are published periodically as volumes.