Primary sources are original materials, such as first-hand accounts, events, or works of literature or art, that have not been interpreted by anyone other than their creators. Common types of primary sources are diaries, letters, manuscripts, journals, interviews, memoirs, autobiographies, oral history interviews, speeches, organizational records, business records, documents produced by government agencies, newspapers, and many more. These sources do not generally describe or analyze other documents but are usually created by those who have witnessed what they are describing.
Watch the following video for more information on understanding primary sources.
Think About Your Topic
Once you have decided upon a topic and have gathered some information about the background of your topic, including the key people, places, events, and dates involved, you can start to think about finding primary sources. Think about these questions in order to determine what types of information you will be searching for:
Search Terms
Manuscript collections or archives of organizational records often include some of the following keywords in their titles or content descriptions. By combining these words with words that describe your topic you are more likely to find primary sources:
An example of this type of search is "United States Civil War" AND diaries
Search by Author
To find diaries, letters, autobiographies, etc. search a person's name as an author which will give you results written by the person rather than results about them.
Books and Articles
Many secondary sources will include a Works Cited or Bibliography of the sources used by the author. Primary sources are frequently listed in these bibliographies.
Database Tips
Many of the databases allow you to limit your search to document types and to primary source types in the advanced search screen. For instance, in the database Academic Search Complete, go to the advanced search screen:
Once you are in the advanced search screen, scroll down and you will see document types. You can choose to search for letters and speeches, both of which are types of primary sources. It will look like this:
You may also search by primary source types. It will look like this:
Featuring thousands of full-text journals, this collection of scholarly trade and popular articles offers information on a broad range of important areas including: anthropology, biology, chemistry, ethnic & multicultural studies, law, mathematics, music, psychology, women's studies, and many other fields.
Part of the Database Offerings in GALILEO, Georgia’s Virtual Library
Arts & Humanities Database titles include both scholarly peer-reviewed journals and selected trade and consumer titles relevant to applied arts and cultural studies. The subject strengths of the collection are art and design, interior design, anthropology, history, philosophy, modern languages and literature, music, theatre, film, and cultural studies.
Part of the Database Offerings in GALILEO, Georgia’s Virtual Library
Georgia History eBooks from the University of Georgia Press includes early and seminal works on Georgia's history and culture, many published in the 1950s and 1960s that have long been out of print.
Part of the Database Offerings in GALILEO, Georgia’s Virtual Library
The database features full text for more than 1,990 reference books, encyclopedias and non-fiction books from leading history publishers. The database also includes full text for more than 150 leading history periodicals.
Part of the Database Offerings in GALILEO, Georgia’s Virtual Library
JSTOR is an archive of scholarly journals in a range of disciplines including language and literature, the arts, history, social sciences, etc.
Covers topics across all government and military branches, including international relations, political science, criminology, defense, aeronautics and space flight, communications, civil engineering, and more.
Part of the Database Offerings in GALILEO, Georgia’s Virtual Library
ProQuest Central brings together 30 highly used ProQuest databases to create the largest single academic research resource. Researchers can choose to search individual databases for targeted research or search all at once to find relevant results and information from other disciplines. This allows cross-searching with other ProQuest business resources as well as creation of RSS feeds, content alerts, Smart Search, article linking, and much more.
Part of the Database Offerings from GALILEO, Georgia’s Virtual Library
ProQuest Research Library™ provides access to more than 5,060 titles —over 3,600 in full text— on a wide range of popular academic subjects. The database features a diversified mix of scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, and newspapers.
Part of the Database Offerings in GALILEO, Georgia’s Virtual Library
Credo Reference helps researchers build context by providing background information and key terms enabling more efficient research. Content from hundreds of reference books are presented in every major subject. The content is enriched by a network of cross-reference links that cut across topics, titles and publishers to provide accurate, contextual results.
The database features full text for more than 1,990 reference books, encyclopedias and non-fiction books from leading history publishers. The database also includes full text for more than 150 leading history periodicals.
Part of the Database Offerings in GALILEO, Georgia’s Virtual Library