Types of Resources
Primary
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Conference proceedings - Scholars and researchers getting together and presenting their latest ideas and findings
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Books - Extensive and detailed discussions of a particular topic or set of topics, written by the scholars and researchers who came up with the ideas or discovered the findings.
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Journal articles - Brief, specific analyses of particular aspects of a topic, written by the scholars and researchers who came up with the ideas or discovered the findings.
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Lab reports - Experiments, observations, etc.
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Historical documents - Official papers, maps, treaties, etc.
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First-person accounts - Diaries, memoirs, letters, interviews, speeches, oral history
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Recordings - audio, video, photographic
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Artifacts - manufactured items such as clothing, furniture, tools, buildings, toys, religious objects, architecture of a culture
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Newspapers - Some types of articles, e.g. stories on a breaking issue, or journalists reporting the results of their investigations.
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Government publications - Census statistics, economic data, court reports, etc.
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Internet - Web sites that publish the author's findings or research; e.g. a professor's home page listing research results.
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Manuscript collections - Collected writings, notes, letters, diaries, and other unpublished works.
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Archives - Records (minutes of meetings, purchase invoices, financial statements, etc.) of an organization (e.g. The Nature Conservancy), institution (e.g. Wesleyan University), business, or other group entity (even the Grateful Dead has an archivist on staff).
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Ads/Broadsides - Billboards, magazine inserts, and posters.
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Laws, Inventories, Birth/Death certificates, Wills, Photographs
Secondary
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Books - Extensive and detailed analyses by scholars providing criticisms, commentaries, and interpretations of primary ideas and findings.
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Journal articles - Brief, specific analyses, criticisms, commentaries, and interpretations of particular aspects of primary ideas and findings.
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Newspapers - Articles which report on earlier findings, or offer commentary or opinions.
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Internet - Web sites that comment on earlier findings or research
Tertiary
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Encyclopedias - Articles providing introductory or summary information; coverage can be general (e.g. Encyclopedia Britannica) or subject-specific (e.g. Encyclopedia of Sociology).
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Dictionaries - Definitions or brief summaries of terms, ideas, etc.; coverage can be general (e.g. Webster's, Random House) or subject-specific (e.g. Dictionary of Cell Biology).
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Almanacs - Good for concise factual information, e.g. statistics, lists
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Directories - Lists of people or organizations, with addresses, affiliations, etc.; useful guides to finding primary source material
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Atlases - Maps of population, economic, historical, political, geological, biological, climatological, etc. information.
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Indexes - Lists of sources on a subject or set of subjects; once you have some key terms for your topic, use indexes to find secondary and primary sources.
Adapted Source:
The Truth is out there… but where? The Road to Research,
Wesleyan University library http://www.wesleyan.edu/library/tut/rst/index.html
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Primary Sources Overview
Using
Primary Sources in the Classroom
Types
of Resources
Reading
a Primary Source
Reading
Secondary Source
Evaluating
an Interpretation
Primary
Source Lessons (4)
Reference
Source for Lesson Plans
Primary
vs Secondary Sources: A Comparison
How to Interpret a document
How to Interpret a Map
How to interpret an object
Primary Source Websites
Primary Source Websites for Teachers
Download
Types of Resources in Word Document format.
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