A primary source is "first-hand" information, sources as close as possible to the origin of the information or idea under study. Primary sources are contrasted with secondary sources, works that provide analysis, commentary, or criticism on the primary source. In literary studies, primary sources are often creative works, including poems, stories, novels, and so on. In historical studies, primary sources include written works, recordings, or other source of information from people who were participants or direct witnesses to the events in question. Examples of commonly used primary sources include government documents, memoirs, personal correspondence, oral histories, and contemporary newspaper accounts.
By using a proper search strategy, the library catalog is an effective tool for lcoating books that are primary sources. WorldCat Local will search for items at the Pepperdine University Libraries and over 70,000 libraries worldwide.
Search by people who witnessed or participated in an event:
There are useful search terms to identify primary sources:
Please note: books with the phrase "documentary history" in the title often contain primary sources.
You can also restrict your search to books that were written at the time of the historical event to limit your results to primary sources.
Documents central to U.S. foreign and military policy since 1945, compiled by top scholars and experts.
Personal accounts, such as diaries and letters, of people in North America from 1534-1850, including traders, slaves, missionaries, explorers, soldiers, native peoples, and officials.
Historical books, pamphlets and broadsides from 17th and 18th century America.
Primary sources on American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction.
Access to personal narratives including several thousand indexed and searchable pages of Ellis Island Oral History interviews, starting around 1840 to the present, focusing on 1920 to 1980.
Letters and diaries from colonial times to 1950 plus journal articles, pamphlets, newsletters, monographs, and conference proceedings
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