Primary & Secondary Sources: Home

What is a Primary Source? - Primary sources are records that provide first-hand testimony or evidence of an event, action, topic, or time period. Primary sources can vary depending on the subject.

What is a Secondary Source? - Secondary sources put primary sources in context. They summarize, interpret, analyze, or comment on  information found in primary sources.

Letter from King Philip II of Spain (1527-1598). Courtesy, L.Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library,
Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602. http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/Philip2Corr/id/251/rec/56

Use the Catalog Search option on the UW Libraries homepage to find primary sources about a person or event. Search using some of the keywords that describe your subject in combination with one or more of the following terms:

• personal narratives 
• manuscripts
• indexes
• letters    
• archives
• bibliography
• correspondence
• records
• catalogs
• diaries
• documents
• guides
• memoirs 
• sources
• thesis
• travelers 
• papers of...
• travelers' writings

Example: immigrants and (letters or correspondence or diaries)

Search Tips:

“And” narrows your results.

“Or” is more and is used primarily with synonyms or related terms. Best to put “or” terms in parentheses.

Truncation: A search term can be shortened by using a * as a truncation symbol. This allows one search to retrieve singular or plural forms, different spellings of a word or name, or different forms of a word. However, this may widen your search too much so use it carefully.

For example: travel* will retrieve: travel, travels, traveler, traveller, travelers, travellers, traveling, traveled