Primary and Secondary Sources
Primary Sources
For certain assignments you might be asked to use primary sources. Primary sources are works created at the time of an event, or by a person who directly experienced an event.
It is the content that matters and an on-line source can still be a primary source. For example, an online copy of a newspaper from May 8, 1945, is still a primary source even though the original article has been digitized.
Primary sources can include:
- Interviews, diaries, letters, journals, speeches, autobiographies, and witness statements
- Original hand-written manuscripts
- Government documents and public records
- Art, photographs, films, maps, fiction, and music
- Newspaper and magazine clippings
- Artifacts, buildings, furniture, and clothing
Secondary Sources
Secondary sources are works that are written after the original event or experience; they provide criticism or interpretation of the event or experience.
Some examples of secondary sources are:
- Textbooks
- Biographies
- Historical films, music, and art
- Articles about people and events from the past
Primary vs Secondary Video
Digital Collections Purchased or Leased by TMU that Include Primary Sources
Some digital collections from Adam Matthew Digital that may be useful for Caribbean historical studies follow:
Some of the Alexander Street Press collections may also be useful:
Additional Multi-media resources:
- Naxos Music Library This link opens in a new window
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Naxos Music Library is the most comprehensive collection of classical music available online. It includes the complete Naxos and Marco Polo catalogues of over 130,000+ tracks, including classical music, jazz, world, folk and chinese music. Whilst listening, you can read notes on the works being played as well as biographical information on composers or artists in Naxos’s extensive database.
You can select works by composer, artist, period, year of composition, instrument or genre. Playlists can also be easily created for educational use. Naxos’s new releases (currently around 200 CDs per year) are continually added to ensure that the music library is always complete and up-to-date.
It is not possible to download or burn to CD any music from Naxos Music Library. - Naxos Video Library This link opens in a new window
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The Naxos Video Library brings you an extensive streaming video library of classical music performances, opera, ballet, live concerts and documentaries. It includes the Naxos DVD label, Opus Arte, Arthaus, Dacapo, EuroArts, among others and is continuously updated to offer the best selection of performing arts videos.
An online search engine, allows users to search by composer, production, artist, venue, role or genre. - Kanopy Streaming This link opens in a new window
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Kanopy is a streaming service that provides the platform to a host of educational video productions covering a wide range of subjects, from arts, humanities, health, business, education and more. The collection has over 800 video titles from various producers.
The majority of the videos are closed captioned and clip-making is allowed.
A Sampling of Searches to Discover More Primary Sources in the TMU Libraries Omni Search
Africa History Sources (Omni, Browse Search, Library of Congress subject heading)
The following examples use Omni, Advanced search, Subject contains...)
Further Explorations into Primary Sources
Using Primary Sources on the Web -- a concise guide to finding and evaluating primary sources online written in 2015 by a sub-committee of the Instructional and Research Services Committee of the Reference and User Services History Section in the American Library Association.
More freely accessible resources can be found in the archives and digital collections identified on the Websites page of this guide.
