How to Find Primary Sources (History)

What are Primary and Secondary Sources?  | What Are Some Examples of Primary Sources?  | How Do I Find Primary Sources?

What are Primary and Secondary Sources?

Primary sources are:

Secondary sources are:

What Are Some Examples of Primary Sources?

Official records: cabinet papers diplomatic dispatches
laws parish records
parliamentary debates ambassador's reports
treaties
Published sources: newspapers speeches
autobiographies pamphlets/treatises
memoirs
Private sources: letters diaries

How Do I Find Primary Sources?

  1. Use the Library Catalogue to find books at MUN related to your topic.

    • Use keywords that describe your topic together with any/some of the following words:
      • Autobiography/Autobiographies
      Biography
      Correspondence
      Diary/Diaries
      Interview/Interviews
      Journal       		Letter/Letters
      Personal narratives
      Public opinion
      Sources
      Speech/Speeches

      Example: cold war and (letter$ or narrative$ or correspondence)
                     and click on:       Search Everything

      ($ (dollar sign) is the wildcard/truncation symbol in the catalogue, and would retrieve "letter" or "letters", etc.)

    • Look at the publication dates of the book and the birth/death dates of the author:

      • The date of the original publication may give you an indication that you have a primary source. Look for the publication date or a note about the original publication.
        If the birth and death dates of the author are such that he/she lived during the time of your event you may have a primary source.

    • Look at notes in the record:

      • There may be notes in the record which describe the material and give clues as to whether or not it is a primary source. For instance, if there is a note indicating that the work is a facsimile or a reprint, then you may have a primary source.

  2. Use newspaper indexes to find newspaper articles. Use the index for the years when your event took place.

    • A good place to start:
      • Factiva (1975-present. coverage varies)
        Includes articles from Canadian (both local and national) and international newspapers in 22 languages.

    • For older Canadian and international newspapers:
      • The New York Times article archive (1851- present)
        The full text of articles from 1851-1922, and from 1987 to present, are available in the index. The QEII Library has the articles from 1923-1986 on microfilm.
      • News Archives Search (19th century - present)
        Some content is pay-per view. Before you pay, ask at the Information and Research Help Desk -- we might be able to obtain the article elsewhere for free.

    • Also Canadian Newspapers:
      • CBCA Current Events (for Canadian Newspapers)
        To limit your search to newspaper articles only, choose NEWSPAPERS in the PUBLICATION TYPE list.
      • FPinfomart.ca
        Search 124 Canadian newspapers & 6 news wires for free. MUN Libraries have subscriptions to many of the newspapers where the articles can be found.
      • Newcan.com
        Contains full-text of most Newfoundland and Labrador newspapers, plus some newspapers from the Maritime provinces.

    • The Library also has a number of newspapers (national, regional, and local). Most of these do not have indexes, but you could scan them for the time period that you are researching. Ask at the Research Help Desk for help in identifying these newspapers.

  3. MUN owns several large digitized newspaper collections. Do a search in the catalogue for:

  4. Government Documents

  5. Major Collections of Primary Sources on the Internet:

  6. Subject guides to the Internet are excellent sources of primary documents. Look for words such as primary, archival, narrative, etc. in the descriptions of each web site. These words are usually an indication that you have found a primary source.

  7. Last, but not least, Google is useful when researching a narrow topic or trying to locate a specific document, e.g. vimy ridge primary documents.

March 4, 2011