• What is a primary source?

A primary source is the raw, unanalyzed material that is the starting point and basis of all good research.  A primary source can be anything that offers a first-hand account, such as letters, maps, photographs, paintings, a poem, the manuscript of a novel, a newspaper advertisement, a diary, census data, or statistics.  A primary source is an original, a one-of-a-kind, or the first of its kind.
 

• Why do you want to use primary sources in your research?

All good research is based on data, whether it is numbers, pictures, words or texts, or objects. This data has to exist, and you must discover it and analyze it, for your research question to be proven.  Sometimes the data is available, and sometimes it needs to be gathered.

Here are some general tips to keep in mind as you anticipate using primary sources in your research:

• Leave yourself enough time to do your research. It will take more time than you think to gather your raw material, synthesize it, and draw conclusions about its relevance and meaning.
• Have a clear understanding of the focus of your topic and be able to explain it to the librarian helping you.
• Understand the language of the material because primary sources usually are not translated nor do they come with explanations written in English.
• Deciphering the material you are using will be difficult sometimes.  Handwritten documents, historic maps, even raw data require time and sometimes assistance to read and comprehend.
• Collections generally are not rearranged from the order their creator imposed upon them.  You should not expect to find everything on a topic arranged together.

The Libraries of The Claremont Colleges hold primary source material in several collections. Your research topic will dictate which type of resource you need and, thus, which of the collections you will use.

• For example, if you want to read accounts of the gold rush in California, you could use the Mason Collection in Special Collections at Honnold/Mudd Library.
• If you need the latest population statistics on the City of Los Angeles, you would go to Government Publications Department at Honnold/Mudd Library.
• If you want to read the diary of an American woman pioneer, you would visit the Macpherson Collection at Denison Library on the Scripps campus.

Blais, the online catalog, is a good starting point for locating original material at the Libraries.

How can you tell that the record you are looking at refers to a primary source?
• Sometimes the location of the item will be an indication.  For example, materials located in Asian Studies, Denison Macpherson Treasure, Honnold/Mudd Special Collections, or Government Publications are likely to be primary sources; these collections are focused on specific subjects and will include primary as well as secondary material.
• Each Blais record includes a physical description of a given item; the description will tell you the format of an item, such as "photograph," "manuscript," or "datafile."

In Denison Library and in Honnold/Mudd Library, the card catalog is a necessary tool for locating materials in special collections that are not currently represented in Blais.  Located on the 2nd floor of Honnold/Mudd Library, the Special Collections card catalog is a valuable resource for anyone looking for primary materials in Special Collections.  Searchable by author, title, and subject, the cards in the catalog direct you to the collection in a campus library or in Honnold/Mudd Special Collections that holds the item you want to read.

In-House Finding Tools in Honnold/Mudd Special Collections

Because there are many different kinds of primary sources, they require diverse methods of description and access.  There are several ways of finding primary sources held in the department.  These tools are created by the Special Collections staff members to assist researchers with locating uncataloged material:

• archival finding aids to manuscript collections
• card files
• catalogs
• indexes and inventories
• in-house databases

The Libraries of the Claremont Colleges' website includes useful online guides to the primary sources we own.

Asian Studies
Denison Library
Government Publications
Seeley G. Mudd Science Library
Special Collections
Sprague Library

RLIN
NUCMC
WorldCat (in FirstSearch)

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