Geography (Physical): Primary and Secondary sources

Primary sources

Primary sources are original sources of information, typically created at the time of the events or individual being researched.

Examples of primary sources:

• Survey results
• Original research  (published and/or presented, e.g. at  aconference).
• Original data - data collected at particular time, during an expriment or over a specified period: census data, climate data, vegetation survey or economic statistics
• Minutes of a meeting
• Photographs, video, or audio that capture an event
• Newspaper reports, by reporters who witnessed an event or who quote people who did
• Laws and parliamentary debates (Hansard)
• Speeches, diaries, letters, and interviews - what the people involved said or wrote
• Art, political cartoons, or literature from the time period
• Laboratory notes about an experiment as it is being conucted
• Field work notes as research is being conducted
• Technical Reports
• Patents

Secondary sources

Secondary sources add a layer of interpretation and analysis to primary sources, and are usually written after the time period being examined. 

Examples of Secondary sources:

• Academic journal articles that are reviewing other research (sometimes referred to as, literature reviews, systematic reviews, scoping reviews, meta-analysis)
• Magazine articles
• Scholarly / academic books and textbooks  - these often explain the theories and conepts of a disclipine and utilises academic literature and accounts of real life events as case studies.  Most books in the LIbrary collections fare secondary sources.
• Encyclopedia entries
• Documentaries 
• Film reviews and book reviews
• Newspaper articles or interviews that discuss/analyse/prcovide an opinion on an event or person after the fact (e.g. a historical event).
• Biographies

You can find an abundance on secondary sources using Library Search Ketu and Google Scholar