Primary resources are those written by people who actually witnessed
or participated in an event. When you read a scientist’s report about
an experiment he has conducted, you are consulting a primary
resource.
Secondary resources are those written by people who were not
actually present at an event, but have studied the subject. When you
read a book about the 1950s written by someone who was born in
1960, you are learning from a secondary resource.
Primary resources are likely to be more reliable sources of infor -
mation. But depending upon your subject, there may not be any
primary resources available to you.
Where to Look for Materials
How do you find out whether anyone has written a magazine or
newspaper article about your topic? How do you know if there
are any government documents or pamphlets that might be of
help? How do you locate those written-by-the-experts reference
books?
You look in your library’s publication indexes, which list all of the
articles, books, and other materials that have been published and/or
are available in your library. Most are arranged alphabetically by
subject:
- The card catalog. This is a list of all the books in your
library. (Although many libraries now store it on computer,
it’s still often called a card catalog because it used to be kept
on index cards.) Books are indexed in three different ways:
by subject, by author, and by title.
Chapter 6 ■How to Conduct Your Research 125