Library: Primary Sources: Examples

Distinguishing Between Primary and Secondary Sources

PRIMARY SOURCE		SECONDARY SOURCE
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address		Garry Wills' book Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America
The poem "Field Work" by Seamus Heaney		"A Cold Eye Cast Inward: Seamus Heaney's Field Work" by George Cusack in New Hibernia Review (2002 Autumn), pp. 53-72.
The figures for Fontbonne University found in a table of "Number of Offenses Known to the Police, Universities and Colleges" in the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports, 2008		An article in the Fontbanner entitled "Mother Madness" on Psychology professor Laurel Newman's work.
The lyrics of 2 Live Crew's album As Nasty As They Wanna Be		The article "Discouraging 'Objectionable' Music Content: Litigation, Legislation, Economic Pressure, and More Speech" found in Communications & the Law, April 2003, which discusses 2 Live Crew's lyrics.
Cynthia Scheibe's doctoral dissertation on the developmental differences in children's reasoning about Santa Claus		An article in Parents Magazine discussing experts' views on the harm of lying to children about Santa Claus
The text of Barack Obama's keynote address to the 2004 Democratic National Convention found in The New York Times		A 2004 editorial in The New York Times entitled "Everybody Loves Obama"

PRIMARY SOURCES

Diaries or journals (published or unpublished)
Letters, correspondence, or other personal communications
Public documents such as deeds, wills, and marriage licenses or certificates
Newspapers and weekly newsmagazines (offering contemporaneous reporting of events)
Radio and television transcripts and wire reports
Speeches in print or audio formats
Court cases
Legislative reports, bills, and laws
Census data
Government Documents
Inventories
Maps
Art, including paintings, prints, and photographs
Artifacts or specimens
Interviews or oral histories
Works of literature such as fiction, poetry, or drama
Statistics, including opinion polls
Sacred writings