Useful (and entertaining!) video about what Primary sources are and how to find them. Includes tips for searching by subject headings including your keyword plus words like "sources" and "autobiography" etc. See the Library of Congress Subdivisions below for search term ideas.
(Video Source: Locating Primary Sources by Ohlone College Library)
When searching our library book catalog adding keywords such as "sources", "letters", "diaries", "narratives" help to find historical documents or first-person accounts.
The below Chart lists subject heading subdivisions you may see on library catalog items, indicating the stage of publication in which the information may be located. For instance, if you see the subdivision, "personal narrative," the cataloged item is likely to be primary information. If the subdivision is "history," the item is likely to be secondary, because the information is digested and interpreted. If the subdivision is "bibliography," the item is likely to be tertiary because the information is a compilation of secondary materials.
| PRIMARY | SECONDARY | TERTIARY |
| biography (only if it's on an autobiographical record) cases correspondence description and travel diaries fiction interview personal narrative pictorial works poetry short stories sources |
biography (only if it's describing a biography--not an autobiography) criticism and interpretation history history and criticism government policy law and legislation moral and ethical aspects political aspects politics and government psychological aspects public opinion religion religious aspects social policy study and teaching |
abstracts bibliography bio-bibliography chronology classification dictionaries dictionaries and encyclopedias directories encyclopedias guidebooks handbooks, manuals, etc. identification indexes registers statistics tables index |