Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library

Locating Primary Sources

A tutorial on getting started

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Get some leads …

• Browse the InfoCentre catalog for books on your topic

• Browse the same range of shelves where you previously found your secondary sources

• As you browse look for …

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Terms that indicate that a book might contain primary sources …

“Primary Sources” “Reader”

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Terms that indicate that a book might contain primary sources …

“Voices” “Chronicles”

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Terms that indicate that a book might contain primary sources …

“Documents” “Eyewitness”

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While browsing, look for …• Complete translations of works by

primary source writers that you’ve read about or heard mentioned in class lectures

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While browsing, look for …• Sourcebooks—Collections of primary

sources that have been compiled and indexed together just to make your life easier!

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Revisit secondary sources …

• Primary sources can also often be found embedded within secondary sources

• Look for publishers’ visual cues …

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Visual cues in secondary sources …• Look for text in boxes

Be sure that the text in the box is from a primary source writer rather than another academic researcher or prominent modern historian (this quote is from Plutarch)

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Visual cues in secondary sources …• Look for blocks of indented text

The paragraph just before or just after the block of text will often tell you where the quote is from. Be sure that the source quoted is primary.

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Use help from publishers’…

• Look in tables-of-contents

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Use help from publishers …• Look in tables-of-contents

The summaries indicate that chapter 1 of this book has two articles written by primary source writers.

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Use help from publishers …• Look at bibliographies and lists of works

cited

This author lists “Ancient Sources” that were consulted. Search the library collection for these sources!

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Use help from publishers …• Look at authors’ notes/footnotes/endnotes at the

bottoms of pages, ends of chapters, and ends of books

Look for the names of works written by primary source writers. Search the collection for those works and search writers’ names as authors in InfoCentre.

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Use help from publishers …• Look at references or lists of books at

the end of chapters

This article lists the primary source writers and the names of the works used. Search the library collection and mine the sources for other useful quotes!

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End of tutorial