LibGuides: Primary vs. Secondary Sources: Primary vs. Secondary Sources

What is a Primary Source?

Primary Sources	Secondary Sources
Provide first-hand testimony or direct evidence	Gather, interpret, and analyze primary sources
diaries or correspondence autobiographies and oral histories photographs and illustrations newspaper articles reporting an event manuscripts pamphlets, broadsides, or other ephemera census data	A history textbook An encyclopedia article on immigration A scholarly article on healthcare reform A magazine article using census data to describe San Francisco A newspapers articles synthesizing information about school funding

Try these keywords: sources, diaries, oral history, autobiograpy, memoir, personal narratives, correspondence.

	Primary sources on California History
	Primary sources from across the U.S.
	Documents from the National Archives
	Primary sources from libraries & museums across the U.S.