A note on sources

WHAT ARE PRIMARY SOURCES?

Primary sources enable the researcher to get as close as possible to what actually happened during an historical event or time period. A primary source reflects the individual viewpoint of a participant or observer.

1.Diaries, journals, speeches, interviews, letters, memos, manuscripts and other papers.

2.Memoirs and autobiographies; These may be less reliable than diaries or letters since they are usually written long after events occurred and may be distorted by bias, dimming memory or the revised perspective that may come with hindsight. On the other hand, they are sometimes the only source for certain information.

3.Records of or information collected by government agencies.

4.Records of organizations.

5.Published materials; written at the time about a particular event

6.Research data such as anthropological field notes, the results of scientific experiments, and other scholarly activity of the time.

7.Artifacts of all kinds: physical objects, buildings, furniture, tools, appliances and household items, clothing, toys.

WHAT ARE SECONDARY SOURCES?

A secondary source is a work that interprets or analyzes an historical event or phenomenon. It is generally at least one step removed from the event. A recent article that evaluates and analyzes the relationship between the feminist movement and the labor movement in turn-of-the-century England is an example of a secondary source; if you were to look at the bibliography of this article you would see that the author's research was based on both primary sources such as labor union documents, speeches and personal letters as well as other secondary sources. Textbooks and encyclopedias are also examples of secondary sources.

PRIMARY SOURCES ON THE WEB.
VERY IMPORTANT; Before relying on the information provided by a website, examine and understand the purpose of the website. Sometimes sites use primary source material to persuade the reader to a particular point of view, distorting the contents in obvious or subtle ways. Also, sites can use primary source material haphazardly, without appropriately choosing, inspecting, or citing the work. Government sites, especially new states may be subject to propaganda.

Many URLs (Uniform Resource Locator or web site address) include the name and type of organization sponsoring the webpage. The 3-letter domain codes and 2-letter country codes provide hints on the type of organization. Common domain codes are:

Domain Sample Address
.edu = educational institution http://docsouth.unc.edu
.gov = US government site http://memory.loc.gov
.org = organization or association http://www.theaha.org
.com = commercial site http://www.historychannel.com
.museum = museum http://nc.history.museum
.net = personal or other site http://www.californiahistory.net

Look for the name of the author or organization responsible for the page. Look for the following information:
Credentials -- who is the author or organization and what sort of qualifications do they have? Contact address -- is an email or some other contact information given? "About" link -- is there an "about," "background," or "philosophy" link that provides author or organizational information?

Check to see if the web site is reviewed:
Look up the web site in reputable history subject directories such as History Matters and the History Guide. See if the site has been reviewed in the Internet Scout Project. Also check printed reviews. Find out what other webpages link to the web site. How many links are there? What kinds of sites are they?

Some websites with primary materials and others found useful by EB members:

http://library.byu.edu/~rdh/eurodocs/

http://www.library.yale.edu/libraries/libraries.html

http://www.classics.buffalo.edu/resources.htm

http://www.atarn.org/

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/...are/home*.html

http://www.isidore-of-seville.com/library/

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/asbook08.html

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/

http://museums.ncl.ac.uk/archive/arma/

Linguistics:

http://indoeuro.bizland.com/links1.html


This will allow you to post an image in the forum:

http://www.iranica.com/articlenavigation/index.html

This site is excellent for research, but only available to University students in the US, and some in the UK:

http://www.jstor.org/

Please thank Sharrukin for his hard work in putting this together (and Urnamma who added the last link).