Primary & Secondary Sources - Journalism - Resources for Journalism Graduate Students - Library Guides at University of Missouri Libraries

Primary Sources

Primary sources are documents or physical objects written or created at the time historical events occurred or well after the events in the form of memoirs or oral histories. The author or creator was present at the time of the event and offers a first-hand account. Primary sources may include:

Original Documents (Diaries, letters, speeches, notes, meeting minutes, interviews, news audio or video footage, autobiographies, official records (birth/death/marriage certificates), new research findings reported in scholarly journal articles, newspaper articles, government documents (laws, reports, statistics, data).
Creative Works (music, photography, film, poetry, drama, novels, works of art, architecture)
Relics/Artifacts (jewelery, pottery, tools, weapons, clothing, buildings - created and used during the period of study)

Primary sources serve as raw material to interpret the past, and when used along with previous interpretations by historians, may provide resources necessary for historical research.

MU Libraries' Primary Source Guide

Browse History Librarian, Rachel Brekhus' History: Primary Resources Research Guide

Find primary source material by searching:

Library Catalogs (monographs and serials containing autobiographies, memoirs, letters, speeches, interviews, etc.; government documents, newspaper and periodical microforms, maps, etc.)

Archives/Special Collections
- (MU/UM)University Archives
- MU Libraries Special Collections and Rare Books
- State Historical Society of Missouri
  - Manuscript Collection Finding Aid (Formerly: Western Historical Manuscript Collection)
- ArchiveGrid searches through collection descriptions from thousands of libraries, museums and archives.
- Archives USA is a current directory of 5,596 repositories and 154,678 collections of primary source material across the United States.

Secondary Resources

Secondary Sources analyze, interpret, or comment on primary resources. They may include books (handbooks, encyclopedias, biographies), articles, reviews, scientific studies, editorials, etc.

Conduct a literature review using secondary sources
Search the online catalog for books and serials
Search (print & digital) subject bibliographies and databases for scholarly articles:
Mine article bibliographies