Information Literacy Guide | Locating Information | Reference Tools Resources | Site Outline

 

Locating Information: Reference Tools: Primary & Secondary Sources
  1. Dewey Decimal System
  2. Online Catalog
  3. Reference Tools
  4. Electronic Searching

 

Primary source material is contemporary accounts of an event and original documents.

Secondary source material is written or reported at some point after an event occurred by someone other than the originator.

 

 

Using Primary and Secondary Sources

Examples of primary sources

• a person close to the event or topic you're investigating like a person who lived during the Great Depression would be a primary source for a report on the Depression

You would gather information through an interview process

• a real journal, a letter, diary, newspaper article, speech or a document from the time period you are investigating

• an eyewitness account, photographs , news footage, audio or video recordings taken at the actual event

 

Examples of secondary sources

• books

• articles

• magazines

• newspaper articles

• videos

On to the next section... Video and Sound Recordings

 

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Last modified: October, 2003 by Steinke, Ague, Feuerhelm, Maxwell, and Warburg