Guide to History Primary Sources
In many disciplines, you need to locate primary resources for your research. Although the definition of what constitutes a primary (or secondary) source can vary dependent on the discipline, this is a general guide in locating the needed material. A key factor in determining whether something is primary is to ask yourself “Is this firsthand (letters, diaries, research data) material?”
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| Primary sources may be in book form but can
be much more than books. Maps, images, and first-hand
newspaper accounts or interviews can also
be used for primary source materials. Other materials such
as music, movies made during the time period and
advertisements may also meet your needs. Also,
government-created materials
such as census data and statistics, treaties,
and legislation are rich sources for the
researcher looking for primary sources.
On the other hand, secondary sources are later interpretations of events, such as biographies based on diaries and correspondence. Due to being written after the event, these works are likely to contain interpretation, commentary, and criticism not available at the time of the event and therefore are not ‘raw’ firsthand experience or narration. Even more removed from the primary source is the tertiary source. A distillation of primary and secondary sources, but still must be based in fact and not rumor or hearsay if it is to be used for research in your paper.
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| Think about your topic and write a list of possible words
to search, including variations in spelling and names.
Writing has changed over time and primary source documents might not be using
spelling as you use it now. The Oxford English Dictionary
(in the Reference area and online in Research Databases) traces the
changes in a word and could be useful.
Secondary sources such as encyclopedias and some books are a good place to start your research. Although they are not primary documents, many times the bibliographies contain references to primary sources. To locate primary source documents in the library catalog, use your topic term with another word that describes the type of document you want to find. A sample search would be for pioneer women's diaries of their experiences traveling west. The search strategy could be typed up using the wildcard asterick (*). It would look like this: wom*n and pioneer* and diar*. This tells the computer you are looking for the terms:
You will get more results from one search and save time as opposed to searching each combination of the full words separately. Seven items came back in the CSUSM catalog on this search, while only two came back on the search for woman and pioneer and diary. |
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Note that CD databases (
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Here is a sampling of the primary source collections CSUSM has in print. Microfilm and fiche
Books If material you locate does not clearly fit into one of the categories, assume it is not a primary source—but always consult with your instructor or a librarian for further help.
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