Primary Sources: Start Here

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CCBC Catonsville Library
LIBR Bldg, 800 S. Rolling Rd
Baltimore, MD 21228

443-840-2730 Reference
443-840-2710 Circulation    
410-455-6436 Fax
library@ccbcmd.edu

CCBC Dundalk Library    
COMM Bldg, 7200 Sollers Point Rd
Baltimore, MD 21222

443-840-2592 Reference
443-840-2591 Circulation
443-840-3559 Fax
library@ccbcmd.edu


CCBC Essex Library
LIBR Bldg, 7201 Rossville Blvd
Baltimore, MD 21237

443-840-1425 Reference
443-840-2809 Circulation
443-840-1724 Fax
library@ccbcmd.edu

CCBC Extension Centers
For library services contact
CCBC Catonsville
library@ccbcmd.edu

Hunt Valley

Owings Mills

Randallstown

What is a primary source and how is it different from a secondary source?

Primary sources are original records created at the time a historical event occurred or afterwards in the form of memoirs or oral histories.  Primary sources are often referred to as "first hand" accounts and are frequently used by historians as evidence to build interpretations of the past.

Primary sources may include any of the following: letters, manuscripts, diaries, journals, newspaper articles, speeches, interviews, photographs, memoirs, maps, video or sound recordings, government documents and reports.  

There are, however, many other types of primary sources and these can be as far reaching as lyrics from a song written at the time of an event or a book which includes an interview with someone who witnessed an event fifty years earlier.  

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