A primary source is a work created by a person or persons involved in an event, movement, battle, etc., or in newspapers, journals, or other media contemporaneous with the event. Thus they are first-hand (or primary) accounts of the event and they provide first-hand evidence of what happened. Another way to think of primary sources is as "original," "uninterpreted" sources which provide an original perspective on aparticular historical period or event. Primary sources can come in many formats -- they can be published or unpublished, a printed text or a text that has been digitized, an artifact, a recording, a painting or and image. They can also be reprinted or issued for publication or made accessible to the public long after their creation. For example, government documents may be classified for many years before these primary soruces can be used by researchers. Oral histories may be recorded many years after the events about which the person is being interviewed took place. Because of this, primary sources can be found in many sections of libraries and archives. They are published in books that are found in circulating stacks. They constitute articles in newpapers and manuscripts that are held in electronic databases. They are manuscripts and legal treatises found in Special Collections. They are digital images found on the internet and in digital library depositories. Some examples of primary sources include autobiographies, diaries, e-mail, interviews, letters, minutes, news film footage, official records, photographs, raw research data, and speeches. Newspapers can be considered primary sources if they offer first-hand accounts of events. Often they are considered secondary sources because they offer a second layer of interpretation of the subject matter.
