We have several guides at Penrose Library, organized by Subject Guides, Course Guides, and General Guides:
Subject Guides - for specific areas of study. If you are writing a paper for a Biology class, you can look in the Biology Subject Guide for recommended databases and sources.
Course Guides - for specific classes. If your class met with a librarian, it is likely there is a Course Guide available for that class.
General Guides - for help finding library resources, how to cite sources, among others.
Use the link below to get to our Guides site:
The Database finder is also available to look through databases. You can sort by subject.
Primary - first-hand, first-person accounts or narratives without interpretation, commentary, or translation. Primary sources display original thinking
Examples: Thesis, dissertations, research-based scholarly journal articles, or journal articles that report research for the first time, breaking news, diaries, autobiographical blog entries, eyewitness accounts, including photographs and recorded interviews, music and dance performances, artifacts, such as tools, clothing, or other objects, original documents, like tax returns, marriage licenses, and transcripts of trails, building, correspondence, records of organizations and government agencies
Secondary - sources that give an analysis, restatement, or commentary to a primary source.
Examples: all nonfiction books and magazine articles except autobiographical, an article or website that critiques a novel, play, painting, or piece of music, an article or website that synthesizes expert opinion and several eyewitness accounts for a new understanding of an event, the literature review portion of a journal article
Tertiary - sources that index, organize, or compile other sources. Tertiary sources are not usually meant to be read from cover to cover but to dip in and out for the necessary information. They can be a good place for background information to start your research.
Examples: Dictionaries/encyclopedias, almanacs, fact books, most textbooks, timelines
| Primary Source | Secondary Source | Tertiary Source |
|---|---|---|
| Original, firsthand information | secondhand information | thirdhand information |
| Example: Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 - Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? | An essay on the themes and interpretation of the sonnet. | Wikipedia article about Shakespeare or Sonnet 18 |
Scholarly or Popular?
Scholarly or peer-reviewed sources are written by credentialed experts in a given academic field, such as history, geology, or mathematics. For many disciplines, this is the "gold standard" of academic publishing. To determine if something is peer-reviewed, consider:
Popular sources is a very broad category, but popular sources are generally distinguished from scholarly because they are not peer-reviewed. This does not necessarily mean they are untrustworthy or not useful, just that they are of a different sort. In determining if something is a popular source, consider:
Government Sources are materials produced by government agencies at the local, state, and federal levels. These materials can range in various forms, including transcripts, reports, recordings, and microfilm/microfiche.
White papers are persuasive reports that summarize a problem or a finding, propose several solutions, and then advocate for the best solution for the situation.
Reference Sources generally summarize information or a topic. They can also be used to find sources.
Terminology commonly used when discussing sources:
Article - contains specific research findings, if an academic paper, written by a scholar who is considered an expert in their field
Journal - contains multiple research articles grouped along subject lines, edited by experts
Database - indexes journals and articles to make them searchable
Peer Review - a process in which an scholarly article is reviewed by other experts (peers) in your field. These experts provide comments and feedback on the article.
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