Many of the articles, journals, and databases on this page are available through GALILEO at College of Coastal Georgia. If you are a Georgia public library user, you may not have access to everything included here. Need help with GALILEO? Ask a librarian. Also, check out the GALILEO YouTube channel for video tutorials.
A primary source is a document or object that was written or created by someone who was a participant or witness to the event. Examples of primary sources include diaries, letters, speeches, autobiographies, news footage of an event as it happened, or artifacts. (Yes, artifacts, such as pottery, or a quilt.) Ask yourself, "Did the writer or creator witness or experience the event?"
A secondary source is not a first-hand or eyewitness account. This source is one step removed from the primary source. It's written after the fact. Think of a secondary source as an interpretation or analysis of a primary source. A journal article may rely on primary sources, but the article itself is a secondary source. An author who studies the speeches and diaries of a subject, and then writes a book, is creating a secondary source.
So what's a tertiary source? It's the source such as a catalog, bibliography or index that leads the researcher to primary and secondary sources.