6 Categorizing Sources
Once you have your research question, you’ll need information sources to answer it and meet the other information needs of your research project.
In today’s complex information landscape, just about anything that contains information can be considered a potential source.
Here are a few examples:
- Books and encyclopedias
- Websites, web pages, and blogs
- Magazine, journal, and newspaper articles
- Research reports and conference papers
- Field notes and diaries
- Photographs, paintings, cartoons, and other art works
- TV and radio programs, podcasts, movies, and videos
- Illuminated manuscripts and artifacts
- Architectural plans and maps
- Pamphlets and government documents
- Music scores and recorded performances
- Dance notation and theatre set models
Which sources will best meet your information needs?
Sources in the humanities can be categorized by:
- Whether the source is a scholarly, professional or popular publication
- Whether the material is a primary, secondary or tertiary source
- What format the source is in
As you may already be able to tell, sources can be in more than one category at the same time because the categories are not mutually exclusive.
