What are Primary Sources? 

Primary sources provide first-hand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic under investigation. They are created by witnesses or recorders who experienced the events or conditions being documented. Often these sources are created at the time when the events or conditions are occurring, but primary sources can also include autobiographies, memoirs, and oral histories recorded later. Primary sources are characterized by their content, regardless of whether they are available in original format, in microfilm/microfiche, in digital format, or in published format.

Books & Pamphlets

Determining what a primary source is can be tricky, and in no case is this more apparent than with books and pamphlets. From one vantage point, books are the quintessential secondary source: scholars use primary source materials such as letters and diaries to write books, which are in turn secondary sources. However, books can also be a rich source of primary source material. In some instances, as in the case of published memoirs, autobiographies, and published documents, it is easy to determine when a book functions as a primary source.

But even secondary source materials can function as primary sources. Take, for instance, Lytton Strachey’s famous history of nineteenth century England, Eminent Victorians, first published in 1918. On one hand, Eminent Victorians is a secondary source, a history of English society and culture in the 1800s based on Strachey's research and analysis of primary sources. On the other hand, a present-day scholar could treat Eminent Victorians itself as a primary source, using it to analyze the mores and attitudes of Lytton Strachey and the early twentieth century English intelligentsia of which he was a part.

Books & Pamphlets

Determining what a primary source is can be tricky, and in no case is this more apparent than with books and pamphlets. From one vantage point, books are the quintessential secondary source: scholars use primary source materials such as letters and diaries to write books, which are in turn secondary sources. However, books can also be a rich source of primary source material. In some instances, as in the case of published memoirs, autobiographies, and published documents, it is easy to determine when a book functions as a primary source.

But even secondary source materials can function as primary sources. Take, for instance, Lytton Strachey’s famous history of nineteenth century England, Eminent Victorians, first published in 1918. On one hand, Eminent Victorians is a secondary source, a history of English society and culture in the 1800s based on Strachey's research and analysis of primary sources. On the other hand, a present-day scholar could treat Eminent Victorians itself as a primary source, using it to analyze the mores and attitudes of Lytton Strachey and the early twentieth century English intelligentsia of which he was a part.

GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS

A government’s documents are direct evidence of its activities, functions, and policies. For any research that relates to the workings of government, government documents are indispensable primary sources.

A wide range of primary sources are found in government documents: the hearings and debates of legislative bodies; the official text of laws, regulations and treaties; records of government expenditures and finances; statistical compilations such as census data; investigative reports; scientific data; and many other sources that touch virtually all aspects of society and human endeavor. This information comes in a similarly wide variety of formats, including books, periodicals, maps, CD-REMs, microfiche, and online databases.

What makes all these sources “government documents”? What all these sources have in common is that they are published or otherwise made available to the general public by a government for the general public, at government expense or as required by law. They are a government's official “voice.” Government documents are usually housed in separate sections of libraries, and have their own specialized arrangement and finding aids.

Note that government document collections typically do not include primary legal sources such as court decisions and law codes, which are often published by for-profit publishers and are found either in the main library collection or in separate law libraries.

For decades the U.S. government has been the largest publisher in the world, but government documents are also produced by regional, state, and local governments, and by international bodies such as the United Nations and the European Union.