1. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library
Locating Primary Sources
A tutorial on getting started

2. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library
Get some leads …
• Browse the InfoCentre catalog for
books on your topic
• Browse the same range of shelves
where you previously found your
secondary sources
• As you browse look for …

3. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library
Terms that indicate that a book
might contain primary sources …
“Primary Sources” “Reader”

4. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library
Terms that indicate that a book
might contain primary sources …
“Voices” “Chronicles”

5. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library
Terms that indicate that a book
might contain primary sources …
“Documents” “Eyewitness”

6. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library
While browsing, look for …
• Complete translations of works by primary
source writers that you’ve read about or
heard mentioned in class lectures

7. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library
While browsing, look for …
• Sourcebooks—Collections of primary
sources that have been compiled and
indexed together just to make your life
easier!

8. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library
Revisit secondary sources …
• Primary sources can also often be
found embedded within
secondary sources
• Look for publishers’ visual cues …

9. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library
Visual cues in secondary sources …
• Look for text in boxes
Be sure that the text
in the box is from a
primary source writer
rather than another
academic researcher
or prominent modern
historian (this quote
is from Plutarch)

10. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library
Visual cues in secondary sources …
• Look for blocks of indented text
The paragraph just
before or just after
the block of text will
often tell you where
the quote is from. Be
sure that the source
quoted is primary.

11. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library
Use help from publishers’…
• Look in tables-of-contents

12. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library
Use help from publishers …
• Look in tables-of-contents
The summaries
indicate that chapter
1 of this book has
two articles written
by primary source
writers.

13. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library
Use help from publishers …
• Look at bibliographies and lists of works cited
This author lists
“Ancient Sources”
that were consulted.
Search the library
collection for these
sources!

14. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library
Use help from publishers …
• Look at authors’ notes/footnotes/endnotes at the
bottoms of pages, ends of chapters, and ends of books
Look for the names
of works written by
primary source
writers. Search the
collection for those
works and search
writers’ names as
authors in
InfoCentre.

15. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library
Use help from publishers …
• Look at references or lists of books at the end
of chapters
This article lists the
primary source
writers and the
names of the works
used. Search the
library collection and
mine the sources for
other useful quotes!

16. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library
End of tutorial