Primary Sources

What are Primary Sources?

The definition of primary and secondary sources may differ, depending on the academic discipline in which you are working. But, in most instances, primary sources are original materials, produced at the time an event occurred or soon after, or at a later time by someone who was involved in, or who observed, the actual event. These sources may be one-of-a-kind, and they present new information or report on discoveries or experiments. Primary sources become the "raw materials" for subsequent analysis, interpretation, or criticism.

Some examples of primary sources:

• Letters, manuscripts, speeches, interviews, oral histories
• Diaries, journals, autobiographies or memoirs
• Books, articles or newspaper reports written at the time of an event
• Government records (census data, birth or death records, laws, parliamentary debates, treaties)
• Legal documents (wills, judgements, trial transcripts)
• Photographs, postcards, maps, recordings
• Research data (results of experiments or clinical trials, survey responses, ethnography field notes)
• Artifacts (tools, toys, household items, clothing, jewelry)
• Patents, architectural plans, technical drawings
• Literature, art, and other creative works (novels, poems, plays, films, music, performances, sculpture, paintings)
• Internet communications (blogs, tweets, emails)

 

Secondary Sources

Secondary sources describe, analyze, interpret or summarize events, phenomena or primary sources. Such sources are often created significantly later than the time the event occurred, or the primary source was created.

Secondary sources include:

• Biographies, histories
• Encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks, directories, textbooks, reference works
• Magazine, journal, newspaper articles
• Bibliographies, indexes
• Works of criticism, analysis, interpretation or review (e.g., scholarship)

 

 

Locating Primary Materials

Novanet

You can search for primary sources in the Library catalogue (smu.worldcat) . Enter the term(s) that describe your topic and add one or more of the following words.

Some examples:

• "Vietnam War" "personal narratives"
• explorers diaries
• Atwood interviews
• "World War" "pictorial works"
• "Wordsworth, William" correspondence

To find works written by individuals or reports from organizations, select the "Advanced Search" option and search by “Author”.

Some examples:

• Charitable Irish Society
• Howe, Joseph

To find material relating to your topic or event and published during the time period of the topic or event, try using the “Advanced Search.” Enter your keywords in the search boxes (Keyword, Title, Author, and more search options in drop-down menu list) and narrow your search by the year of publication.

Some examples:

• Subject keywords: Halifax explosion and Year: 1917
• Subject keywords: Springhill mine disaster and Year: 1958 to: 1959

These methods will not retrieve all primary sources, but they will get you started finding primary materials in Novanet.

Newspaper and Magazine Articles

Use a newspaper or periodical index to find articles published at the time your event or topic took place. The library has several indexes and databases that might be useful. Here are just a few. Library staff can assist you in locating other sources of articles.

Electronic sources (accessible from the library’s Databases A-Z page):

CBCA (Canadian Business and Current Affairs)
• articles from Canadian newspapers, magazines, and journals, after 1982

The Globe and Mail: Canada’s Heritage from 1844
• full-text access to the Globe and Mail newspaper, including the Report on Business, from June 1844 to December 1999

Eureka.com
• articles from international newspapers, including many from Canada. Coverage varies from title to title

Toronto Star: Pages of the Past
• archives of the Toronto Star newspaper back to 1892 

Paper sources (shelved in the library’s Reference Collection, ground floor):

Canadian Periodical Index (1920-2002)
•call #: AI 3 C242 REF; available electronically from 1980- (see CPI.Q on the Databases A-Z page)

International Index to Periodicals (1905-1974)
•call #: AI 3 R49 REF; divides into Social Sciences Index and Humanities Index (1974-2006)

Poole’s Index to Periodical Literature (1802-1906)
•call #: AI 3 P7 1963 REF

Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature (1890-2007)
•call #: AI 3 R48 REF

Journal Articles

Journal articles that report first-hand observations of an event or that report discoveries, experiments, or the results of studies are considered primary sources. In the sciences, primary sources are most often articles that document the results of original research or an experiment. They often include sections with the following headings: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion.

Journal articles that comment on or analyze primary sources are considered secondary sources of information. However, these articles may also contain some primary source material. For example, a journal article analyzing the text of a literary work may include scanned images of the original text of the literary work or excerpts from the text. Or, an article about the history of political humour in the press may include images of political cartoons from various newspapers.

The library has many journal databases, some containing substantial back files of journal articles. For example:

JSTOR
• archive of over one thousand academic journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences

Periodicals Archive Online
•archive of hundreds of digitized journals in the humanities and social sciences

For these and other journal databases, please refer to the Databases A-Z page.

 

Specialized Bibliographies

Published bibliographies list citations relating to a particular author or subject. In addition to citing books and periodical articles, they often cite primary and unpublished sources of information. Consult with staff for directions on where to find bibliographies on your topic or search the Library catalogue (smu.worldcat) for the keyword(s) that describe your topic and add the word “bibliography.” For more accuracy, try the Advanced Search and search your topic in Keywords, putting "bibliography" in the Title search box.

Examples:

"Nova Scotia” bibliography
War 1812 bibliography

Compilations of Primary Resources

You will find electronic collections of digitized primary sources available through the library’s Databases A-Z page including:

Adam Matthew Collection
• collections of digitized historical primary source documents organized by themes. Topics include: China: Trade, Politics and Culture 1793-1980; Defining Gender, 1450-1910; Slavery Abolition and Social Justice 1490-2007

Early Canadiana Online
• digital library of over 2 million pages of works, including government documents, published from the time of the first European settlers up to the early 20th Century

InteLex Past Masters
• digitized primary source documents by and about great historical figures in literature, philosophy, politics, and theology

Increasingly, primary source materials can also be found on the Internet, particularly in the case of digitized reproductions of historical materials. Archives, museums, and libraries often digitize some of their primary source collections and make them available online. The following sites are just a few of the online collections that are available.

Images Canada
• Provides central search access to thousands of images in the collections of participating archives, libraries, museums and universities from across Canada

Library and Archives Canada
• Canada's national collection of books, historical documents, government records, photos, films, maps, music and more

Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management
• Government and private sector records of significance to Nova Scotia. Searchable access to archival and library collections, including links to vital statistics and virtual exhibits

Saint Mary's University Archives
• The Archives website gives access to various online collections, including photographs and documents from the archival collection documenting the history of the university, oral histories, and the Saint Mary's institutional repository

Library of Congress American Memory Project
•searchable database of written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience

Repositories of Primary Sources
• A directory of over 5,000 websites describing holdings of manuscripts, archives, rare books, historical photographs, and other primary sources for the advanced research scholar. Includes links to libraries and other institutions with digitized primary resources

Using Primary Sources on the Web
• A brief guide to evaluating primary internet resources with excellent examples of specific documents and image files

This page last modified Wednesday, 02-May-2012 14:24:06 ADT