Primary Sources

Primary sources are material or objects that were created or produced at the time of a particular event or period. They are a contemporary account or artifact from the time or the event in question.

Primary sources can include the following:

• Original Documents including correspondence, diaries, autobiographies, journals, interviews, government documents, oral histories, speeches, manuscripts and other types of unpublished work.
• Creative Works including artwork, audiovisual recordings, photographs, poetry or drama.
• Artifacts including pottery, buildings, furniture etc.

Methods of finding primary sources will vary, depending on the resource type and who created it. Some primary sources will be findable within the library's databases. Others may have been digitised and be freely available online via an archive or government agency, whilst still others may be in physical format and require a visit to access. 
See the guidance on Australian Historical Statistics, Newspapers and Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) as well as the more general information on Databases and in the Topic Guidance for tips. 
 

La Trobe subscribes to many databases of quality materials - some of which contain primary sources, some secondary sources, and some a combination of both.

See the library's databases page for details of a wide number of recommended history databases. The Databases section of this guide provides guidance on search strategies & key databases, and the Databases tutorials provide vendor created videos and other training materials on those key databases. 

There are also secondary sources accessible outside of the library subscriptions, although you may need to undertake a closer evaluation of the appropriateness of these resources for your purposes. See Achieve@Uni - Evaluating information for some starting points.