In a physical library, it is fairly easy to tell if what you are holding is a book, a journal article, a dissertation, etc. However, in an online library, you don't have those physical clues to help you with identifying a resource. If you don't know what type of resource you are looking at, it will be hard to tell if it is appropriate for your assignment or research. On the following pages you will find information about these publication types:
After you've reviewed all of these pages, you can test your knowledge by taking our quiz:
After identifying the various types of publications, consider when use of each type might be appropriate.
Please Note: These are general guidelines. Please refer to your discussion, assignment, or capstone rubric for specific requirements.
A question to ask yourself when trying to identify primary or secondary sources is:
Did the person writing the thing do the thing?
While this may sound odd, the best indicator that something is a primary source is if the author of the piece actually DID the work that led to the creation of the resource.
These are some other things to consider with primary and secondary sources.
The term website might be used to refer to anything you find on the Internet. People often use the word in this general way.
However, there is a distinction between online resources available through a Library database, and websites that anyone can find on the World Wide Web with a search engine.
Websites - Evaluating Resources