MMW Primary Sources: Home

Introduction

Thinking About Primary Sources

Primary sources provide the perspectives of individuals or the community, evidence of customs and dress, societal knowledge and beliefs, and many other contextual clues about how people interact with the world around them. They will help you answer your research question or provide information about your topic based on the observations and inferences you make when studying them.

A primary source is unlikely to address your topic in its entirety. Instead, it will likely provide one piece of information that, when combined with others, can be used to support your writing by providing data, an argument you can engage with, or background information.

Historical Primary Sources Description Table
The Historical Primary Sources Table will help you think about a type of primary source, what information it might provide, and where you might locate it.

Using a Primary Source

What type of information does your source provide infographic description

Accessing Electronic Resources?

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VPN Instructions

VPN Troubleshooting

The UC San Diego Health and Health Science VPN also provides off campus access to resources the Library provides. Instructions and assistance for UC San Diego Health and Health Science VPN users can be found in the Pulse intranet.