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Religion 100_Professor Pohl_Spring 2024

Guide to finding primary sources for your primary source exhibit.

What are secondary sources?

 

Secondary Sources are works that are written using information from primary sources. They provide additional commentary, interpretations, or analyses about work that has been published, contributing to conversations that are taking place within a discipline.

Examples:

  • Journal Articles that analyze primary sources
  • Biographies
  • Literary Criticism

When searching for secondary sources in the databases below use the information you found in your tertiary sources to generate keywords.

AND / OR / NOT, known as Boolean Operators, are used to connect and define the relationship between your Keywords. Use uppercase letters for Boolean operators within searches.

AND 

Narrows the search by telling the database or catalog to search for all records with both keywords. Use AND to connect the main concepts you want represented in your results.

  • college AND "social mobility"–will only find records with both words/phrases.

OR

Broadens the search to include records with either keyword/phrase, or both. Use OR to connect synonyms or associated keywords relating to one of your main concepts.

  • college OR "higher education"

NOT

*Use only to differentiate between concepts or filter out results if needed.

Narrows your search. Tells database to find results that include the first word and exclude the second word.

  • cloning NOT sheep

Databases