Primary vs Secondary Sources

What are Primary Sources?

A primary source gives the words of the witnesses or the first recorders of an event, such as categories of some of the examples listed below.

Original Documents	Creative Works	Reports of Original Research

Archives Autobiographies	Drawings Movies	Statistical Data
Laws-U.S. Constitution Letters	Novels Photographs	Results of Experiements or Survey
Manuscripts Memoirs	Plays Poems
Oral Histories Personal Journals	Posters Sheet Music
Quotations Speeches
Wills

What are Secondary Sources?

Secondary Sources are descriptions of the event derived from and based on primary sources.

Secondary sources provide:

Information reviewing critically analyzing biographical or historical studies
Sources that include criticism and interpretation of critical works
Sources that include interpretation of biographies, historical studies, and encyclopedia articles
Sources that include summaries and reviews of scholarly findings
Dissertations and more

Some sample secondary sources are:

Bibliographies
Commentaries
Dictionaries
Encylopedias
Essay on Native American Land Rights
Textbooks
Treaties

The George T. Potter Library has both originals of primary sources and copies which have been republished in books. These materials can

be found in College Archives, Government Documents, Documents Without Shelves, selected databases and the library's reference and general collections.

You can contact the Technical Service/College Archives Librarian for resources on the college's archives and any reference librarian for assistance in locating other primary and secondary sources.

Adapted from University of Texas at San Antonio by Shirley Knight, Reference Librarian

Also, consulted Poulton, Helen J., The Historians Handbook: A Descriptive Guide to Referenmce

Works, Norman, N.H., University of Oklahoma Press, 1972, p175-176, 2005

revised March 2007