CTVA 331: Producing the Documentary

What is a primary source?

Locate relevant primary and historical sources at the Special Collections and Archives on the second floor of the University Library.

To learn about primary sources and how to use them in research, please see the Special Collections and Archives Tutorials. To view or learn about primary sources and other historical materials in our Special Collections and Archives, please use the University Library Finding Aid Database. For information on how to view these materials in person, see our Special Collections and Archives website.

For archives held at other California institutions, please search the Online Archive of California (OAC).

See Citing Archival Materials guide for creating citations for primary and other historical sources.

Primary sources are first-hand accounts of an event or time in history that has yet to be interpreted by another person.

Examples of primary sources include:

• diaries, journals, letters, interviews, speeches, memos, manuscripts, and other first-person accounts
• memoirs and autobiographies
• official records such as government publications, census data, court reports, police records
• minutes, reports, correspondence of an organization or agency
• newspaper and magazine articles written during the time of the event
• photographs, paintings, film and television programs, audio recordings which document an event
• research such as opinion polls which document attitudes and thought during the time of an event
• artifacts such as objects, tools, clothing, etc. of the time period or eve+

The Online Archive of California (OAC) is a searchable database that includes finding aids for archival and primary source collections at more than 200 libraries, special collections, archives, historical societies, and museums in California, including Special Collections & Archives at CSUN.

After searching, you can limit your search results by holding institution, so you can see everything on your topic at other repositories in Los Angeles (UCLA, Occidental, Loyola Marymount, etc.) that have contributed finding aids to the OAC.