LibGuides: INST 4950: Capstone: Primary Sources

Primary Sources vs Secondary Sources

Primary Sources:
A document that records an event during the time that event occurs. The author or creator is usually a participant in the event. Examples include newspapers, images, diaries or journals, letters, books, laws, speeches and much more.

Secondary Sources:
A document that analyzes or summarizes information from a primary source. Examples include books, articles, literature reviews, and more.

Selective list of primary source links

Government Sites & Links
A large collection of links to content from all levels of government, compiled by the UW Libraries' government information librarian.
WWW Virtual Library: International Affairs Resources
This site is updated frequently and points to sites selected for their research value and reliability. Features nicely organized access by subject, type of research, and regions/countries. A good example of the convenient access to authoritative sites you can find with "gateways" like this. In contrast to general search engines, the difficult, time-consuming work of identifying and evaluating thousands of sites been done for you by experts in the various categories.
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To quote from the introduction: "This section of the WWW Virtual Library System presents over 2600 annotated links in a range of international affairs topics. Sites are carefully selected for long-term value, favoring those with cost-free, high-quality information and analysis online. Many are gateway sites or have internal search engines..."

Primary Sources in the Social Sciences

Examples of Primary and Secondary Sources

Primary Source	Secondary Source
Treaties, Laws, Court Rulings, CSPAN Recording, Presidential Address, Campaign Materials	Essay about a treaty, Book analyzing ObamaCare, Documentary about Geneva Conventions, Scholarly article reviewing American Foreign Policy

Where to Find Primary Sources

Databases	Websites
ProQuest Congressional LexisNexis Academic CQ Weekly (Congressional Quarterly) Digital National Security Archive Academic Search Premier	Congress.gov Loc.gov (Library of Congress) Archives.gov (National Archives) legisweb.state.wy.us (Wyoming Legislation)

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