Milne Library
Information Literacy Program
     
INTD 203 Social Foundations of American Education
Professor: Jane Fowler-Morse
 Library Session: Fall 2006
Instructor: Kate Pitcher		  
The URL for this class webpage is :   http://www.geneseo.edu/~pitcher/intd203morse.shtml  
     

After this library session, students will be able to...
1. Define primary and secondary sources and give examples.
2. Explain the difference between "surface web" and "deep web" searching.
3. Use ERIC to search for journal articles and primary sources on a topic.
4. Use Lexis-Nexis to search for cases and newspaper articles on a topic.

 
What are primary sources?
Original materials such as letters, documents, diaries, correspondence, records, photographs, etc. which provide firsthand or eyewitness accounts of an actual event or life.
What are secondary sources?
The secondary materials which interpret, analyze, dissect, and examine the event or life which was documented in the primary source. Examples include biographies, non-fiction treatises, analyses, critiques, essays, journal articles, reports, creative works, and evaluative works.
 
Primary Sources in Education:
Searching for Primary Sources in Education:
  • proceedings from conferences, meetings, symposia
  • data sets and statistics
  • original correspondence (including email and letters)
  • government documents
  • empirical studies (research based on scientific results)
  • technical reports
  • newspaper articles (eyewitness and firsthand accounts only)
  • dissertations and theses (based on original research)
  • learning objects
  • autobiographies
  • diaries
  • interviews, surveys and questionnaires
  • speeches
  • photographs
  • tests and scales
  • student records
  • medical charts
  • course materials and syllabi
  • original documents
    (court records and documents, certificates, etc.)
Examples by discipline
ERIC
  
Lexis-Nexis
  
Other Databases
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Source used:
"Primary & Secondary Sources in Education & Psychology".
UC Berkeley Libraries. Retrieved 7 September 2006. <http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/EDP/primary.html>.
Resources:
updated 08-Nov-2006
© 2006-2007 Kate Pitcher