Primary Sources
Information available at http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/rusa/resources/usingprimarysources/index.cfm

  •       Primary sources enable the researcher to get as close as possible to the truth of what actually happened during an historical event or time period. Primary sources are the evidence left behind by participants or observers. Examples of primary sources include:

•       Diaries, journals, speeches, interviews, letters, memos, manuscripts and other papers in which individuals describe events in which they were participants or observers;

•       Memoirs and autobiographies;

•       Records of organizations and agencies of government;

•       Published materials written at the time of the event;

•       Photographs, audio recordings, moving pictures, video recordings documenting what happened;

•       Artifacts of all kinds; and

•       Research reports in the sciences and social sciences.

                                  Source: http://ipr.ues.gseis.ucla.edu/info/definition.html       4 September 2009