Secondary Source Material

Secondary source material is very easy to find. A huge amount of data in the popular press and on the Internet is of this nature. To be regarded as secondary source material it must come , in any format, from someone other than the originator of that information, or discoverer of that item. It is a report of something rather than a statement by the person on which the report is based.

For many purposes, this level of information is all that is required. A high level of accuracy is not needed for most things in life, which in my view hums along quite well at around 75-80% accuracy, with most people allowing a certain amount of skepticism about most things they see and hear about.

The Index to periodical Literature used to be the main fast source to tracking down material of this sort on a given topic, but now there are numerous "search engines" (like Google, now owned by Yahoo, whose site priorizing algorithm is one of the best) and "e-directories" (like Yahoo, whose hand-inspected selection of sites on each topic is superb)which take people into more information at the secondary level than they could possibly use. In fact, refined search limiters are usually needed to filter out the most significant material to any question, as there is so much of it.

In serious research, the Internet is frequently used to scout out interest groups and postings which may cite primary source material and researchers who in turn may be searched out or their works tracked down. The advent of the net has meant that secondary source feeder-lines to primary source material is that much more available to anyone with access to the net. The sifting and sorting of material still needs to take place, but the initial leads are that much easier to find.

Listings of Listservs and other net functions can also be a great source of leads to primary research material, and in some cases, a source of primary material itself in the form of researchers who are members of a listserv relating to a subject one is researching.

Because of the ease in which web-sites can be published on the web, the Internet is a wealth of critical comment from non-mainline thinkers. Much of this thought is of limited value in serous research, but frequently somebody will have a perspective which will open up a new avenue of inquiry, and comes from people outside the established ,discipline, area of knowledge, or zeitguist .

•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•