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Welcome to the Monkey House: Additional Resources

English 1000

Historical information

Only America History and Life and Historical Abstracts are included with the 40 databases included under Articles searchable from the research rectangle on the homepage.

American Decades: 1960 - 1969

Facts on File

A History of American Literature: 1950 to the Present

Information Please Almanac, Atlas & Yearbook

1968 Timeline

World Almanac & Book of Facts

Kurt Vonnegut Lecture

Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources

Primary sources
Primary sources allow researchers to get as close as possible to original ideas, events and empirical studies as possible. Such sources may include expositions of creative ideas, first hand or contemporary accounts of events, publication of the results of empirical observations or studies, and other items that may form the basis of further research. Examples include:
  • Novels, plays, poems, works of art, popular culture
  • diaries, narratives, autobiographies, memoirs, speeches
  • Government documents, patents
  • Data sets, technical reports, experimental research results
 
Secondary sources
Secondary sources analyze, review or restate information in primary resources or other secondary resources. Even sources presenting facts or descriptions about events are secondary unless they are based on direct participation or observation. Moreover, secondary sources often rely on other secondary sources and standard disciplinary methods to reach results, and they provide the principle sources of analysis about primary sources. Examples include:
  • Biographies
  • Review articles and literature reviews
  • Scholarly articles that don't present new experimental research results
  • Historical studies
 
Tertiary sources
Tertiary resources provide overviews of topics by synthesizing information gathered from other resources. Tertiary resources often provide data in a convenient form or provide information with context by which to interpret it. Examples include:
  • Encyclopedias
  • Chronologies
  • Almanacs
  • Textbooks