A wide variety of information is available on the environment and the history of the environment, including books, articles in books and journals, theses and dissertations and maps. Students can use primary and secondary sources for their paper. These types of sources are described below.
Primary Source - "A document or record containing firsthand information or original data on a topic, used in preparing a derivative work." (Online Dictionary of Library and Information Science). Primary sources include: Diaries, Drawings, Eyewitness accounts, Film footage, Government documents, Interviews, Journals, Letters, Maps, Memoirs, Newspaper clippings, Original manuscripts, Periodical articles reporting original research or thought, Photographs or Public records.
Secondary Source - "Any published or unpublished work that is one step removed from the original source, usually describing, summarizing, analyzing, evaluating, derived from, or based on primary source materials, for example, a review, journal article, critical analysis, second-person account, or biographical or historical study." (Online Dictionary of Library and Information Science).
Tertiary Source - "A written work, such as a chapter in a textbook or entry in a reference book, based entirely on secondary sources, rather than on original research involving primary documents." (Online Dictionary of Library and Information Science).