Primary sources provide firsthand evidence about an event, person or work, oftentimes providing the original materials for additional research by scholars and students. Primary sources can be in multiple formats.

• Autobiographies and memoirs
• Diaries, personal letters, correspondence
• Interviews, surveys, fieldwork
• Internet communications on email, blogs, social media, listservs and newsgroups
• Photographs, drawings, posters
• Works of art and literature
• Book, magazine and newspaper articles published at the time of the event or issue
• Public opinion polls
• Speeches and oral histories
• Birth certificates, deeds, trial transcripts
• Data sets, census statistics
• Records of organizations and government agencies
• Artifacts such as tools, coins, clothing, furniture
• Audio recordings, DVDs, and video recordings
• Government documents
• Patents,
• Scientific journal articles reporting experimental research results

Secondary sources describe, discuss, interpret, comment on, analyze, evaluate, summarize primary sources. A secondary source is generally one or more steps removed from the event or time period are created after the fact with the benefit of hindsight.

• Biographical works
• Bibliographies, reference works
• Documentaries
• Articles from magazines, journals and newspapers reported after the event
• Literature reviews
• History books and academic books
• Textbooks

Please direct comments, or requests to Lisa Romero, Liaison to Latina/o Studies. 

Lisa Romero can be reached at, L-Romero@illinois.edu.