Sue Shaffer Learning Commons and Library: Guides: LIB127: Source Types

The Blast

This image is a primary source. It was taken at the time of The Blast and shows an unaltered moment in history.

Melted coke bottles after the Roseburg blast, 1959. Oregon Historical Society Research Library.

This article is a secondary source because it uses primary source material to help tell the story of The Blast after some time had passed.

The Night our Town Blew Up by Riggs, Bonnie Wallace
Call Number: OVERSIZE 970.529 RIG
Publication Date: 1960

This handbook is a tertiary source because it provides a very brief overview of the events of The Blast.

Brodie's Bombs and Bombings by Jim Smith
Call Number: Read Online
ISBN: 9780398090937
Publication Date: 2015-11-23

Source Types

Primary sources are original sources of information that have not yet been interpreted. This information comes directly from real life data or from the time of an event.

Examples Include:

Diaries, speeches, autobiographies
Works of art (literature, plays, music, photographs, paintings, etc...)
Historical documents (e.g., letters) and artifacts
Data from a research study
- FYI: Scientific journal articles that report the results of original research are considered primary sources
Legal documents (wills, birth certificates, etc...)
News reporting that occurs when an event happens

The infographic below was created by a Research & Instruction Librarian at Cal Poly Pomona to help explain primary sources.

Shonnmharen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Secondary sources give information about a topic and provide the author's interpretation of what it means. This information comes from a collection of primary-source data that is drawn together to provide a larger picture view of an event or to provide an opinion or review. The author will have studied many other primary, secondary, and tertiary sources to come up with information about a topic. Secondary sources are generally meant to be read from start to finish (like an article or a book).

Examples Include:

Biographies: The author may have read other biographies (secondary sources) and have already primary sources such as the person's diaries and letters
Journal articles that review an existing body of research (as opposed to reporting the results of an original research study)
Reviews, summaries, or analyses of works of art
Historical studies
Most textbooks --- be sure to make sure they are not actually tertiary sources

The infographic below was created by a Research & Instruction Librarian at Cal Poly Pomona to help explain secondary sources.

Shonnmharen, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Tertiary sources provide a summary or an overview of existing information about a topic. They are generally not meant to be read from start to finish, but to be used as reference material so that you can refer to them about specific pieces of information when you need them. The information they contain is a compilation of many other secondary and sometimes primary sources about a broad topic.

Examples:

Encyclopedias
Dictionaries
Handbooks
Atlases
Manuals

The infographic below was based off of the infographics created by Shonnmharen.

Infographic explaining tertiary sources

Méndez & Teoli, CC BY-SA 4.0

For more on source types see:

Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources
A concise reading of source types by Jim Alderman. Created for Library & Information Science students at the University of Northern Florida, and updated in March 2014.
Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources: A Quick Guide
From the Cornell University Library. Understanding the differences among these three types of sources with examples for each type.
Primary source
Primary source information and examples from the Salem Press Encyclopedia.

The table below shows a comparison of source types in selected disciplines.

	Primary Source	Secondary Source	Tertiary Source
Communications	Transcript of television news program	Newspaper article about person interviewed on the news	Guide to television news programs
Economics	Bureau of the Census population datasets	Working paper on demographics in Oregon and small business growth	Statistical Abstract of Oregon
Education	Focus group interview of teachers	Journal article about teaching methods	Handbook of effective teaching methods
Environmental Studies	Fieldwork data measuring glacial melting	Book on the impact of climate change	World atlas
Law	Testimony before Congress	Television news report on Congressional hearing	Congressional committee website
Political Science	Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States	Biography of a president	Encyclopedia about American presidents
Psychology	Clinical notes	Journal article about the psychological condition	Mental Measurements Yearbook
Social Work	Fieldwork observation of prison conditions	Research report on prison conditions	Directory of prison facilities
Sociology	Survey of adolescent addiction to alcohol	Journal article about alcoholism among young adults	Textbook on addictions

Adapted from Comparison for Sources in Selected Social Science Disciplines by USC Libraries.