Bowdoin Library: Primary and Secondary Sources (2024)

FAQs

How credible is primary source and secondary source? ›

Primary sources provide raw information and first-hand evidence. Examples include interview transcripts, statistical data, and works of art. Primary research gives you direct access to the subject of your research. Secondary sources provide second-hand information and commentary from other researchers.

A Primary Source is information that was created at the same time as an event or by a person directly involved in the event. Diaries, speeches, letters, official records, autobiographies. A Secondary Source gets its information from somewhere else or by a person not directly involved in the event.

For example, if source #1 is a firsthand account or a document that was created by someone who experienced the events or time period being studied, it would likely be a primary source. On the other hand, if source #2 is an analysis or interpretation of primary sources, it would likely be a secondary source.

One of the main challenges of dealing with primary sources is locating them. Many historical documents have never been published, and they may only be available in archives. For example, here is a page from the expense book of a student enrolled in the University of Illinois in 1930.

Primary sources include journals, diaries, letters, photographs, speeches, recordings, artifacts, and original research. Creators of primary sources have direct experience conducting a study, participating in an activity, or witnessing an event. Primary sources are generally considered more accurate.

Because secondary sources are the result of someone's interpretation or analysis, there can be some degree of misinterpretation or bias. Peer-reviewed scholarly sources are usually reviewed by a group of experts in that subject area before they are published so they are less likely to contain inaccuracies or bias.

When writers use primary sources, they are using raw information and firsthand evidence such as interview transcripts, memoirs, statistical data, and works of art. Secondary sources, on the other hand, constitute secondhand information and commentary made by other researchers.

While primary sources are the original records created by firsthand witnesses of an event, secondary sources are documents, texts, images, and objects about an event created by someone who typically referenced the primary sources for their information. Textbooks are excellent examples of secondary sources.

To identify if a source is primary or secondary, try answering the below questions: Does the information come directly from a person involved in the study? If the answer says that it is directly from a person who participated in the study, then your source is a primary source; otherwise, it is a secondary source.

Is a picture a primary source? ›

Examples of primary sources include letters, diaries, drawings, and photographs. Primary sources are important because they tell us about the time from the perspective of those actually living through it. While primary sources give us a better idea about life in the past, they are not perfect.

Who was with the author when the text was written? - This question helps determine if the document is a primary source. If the author is the only person present when writing the text, it suggests that the document is likely a primary source.

For the arts, history, and humanities, original primary source documents usually are housed in museums, archives, restricted library collections, and government offices. Reproductions of primary source documents often can be found in online digital collections, microform collections, books, and other secondary works.

Primary sources are the most direct evidence of a time or event because they were created by people or things that were there at the time or event. These sources offer original thought and have not been modified by interpretation. Primary sources are original materials, regardless of format.

A secondary source is a step removed. In other words, someone has taken that primary source, that information, and translated it somehow — they have written an article or have heard something someone has said — making it inherently less reliable.

Primary sources are also records of events as they are first described. They are often considered the most credible sources of evidence and are complimented by secondary which will analyze and give context to primary sources. works of literature (poems, novels, plays, etc.)