Primary vs Secondary Sources

A Primary source “gives the words of the witnesses or the first recorders of an event.” The below list, though not exhaustive, includes examples of primary sources.

• Creative works: Drawings, movies, novels, photographs, plays, poems, posters, sheet music
• Original documents: archives, autobiographies, interviews, laws-U.S. Constitution, letters, oral histories, manuscripts, memoirs, personal journals, quotations, speeches, wills
• Reports of original research: statistical data, results of an experiment or survey

Secondary Sources are “descriptions of the event derived from and based on primary sources. The line between primary and secondary sources is often indistinct.”

• Provide information reviewing, critically analyzing, biographical or historical studies, Include criticism and interpretation of critical works
• Include interpretations of biographies, historical studies, encyclopedic articles
• Include summaries and reviews of scholarly findings

The George 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 in the library’s reference and general collections.

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

Selected Web Sites on the library’s homepage.

American Memory Historical Collections http://lcweb2.loc.gov/amhome.html

Avalon Project http://yale.edu/awweb/avalon/avalon.htm

Making of America http://moa.umdl.umich.edu

Resources Consulted:

Poulton, Helen J., The Historians Handbook: A Descriptive Guide to Reference Works

Norman, NH; University of Oklahoma Press, 1972 p175-176

University of Texas at San Antonio http://www.lib.utsa.edu/Research/Subject/primarysourcesguide.html

Prepared by Shirley, Reference Librarian

sknight@ramapo.edu, 8/05