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Information sources are often referred to as "primary" and "secondary" sources. But what does that mean?
A primary source is any source of information that provides immediate, first-hand information about a topic, an event, etc. that is written or created by the people or person who experienced it. A secondary source interprets or analyzes information from primary sources.
For a history paper, primary sources can include things such as census reports, letters, and speeches by individuals who lived during a certain period. This doesn't mean that you need to actually have the original document (usually, those will only exist in museums and archives) but it does mean that you need to find reliable books or websites that reprint the original documents. Fortunately, the library has many collections of primary source documents, and there are many more online.
Finding Primary Sources
The following tutorials may help you identify primary sources:
Additional Information on Primary Sources:
The following sources provide access to primary source documents from all periods of American history.