Primary sources are sources that relate directly to an event. These sources are not scholarly, haven't been through a peer review process, and haven't been analyzed by anyone. For example, a tweet would be a primary source, a newspaper story about an incident would be a primary source, a diary is a primary source, a court case is a primary source, a tax return is a primary source. An entry in a textbook is not a primary source (it isn't directly related to an incident), a journal article isn't a primary source (again not directly related to an incident.)
Primary sources usually do not have an overview of an event, they just relate an individuals perception of what was happening. Sometimes the primary source may be incorrect (diary entry about a school lockdown may be about what happened in a classroom, but won't know what was happening outside of the classroom).
You would use primary sources to get information about an incident so that you could make an analysis of what happened.
Below are resources that you can use to find primary sources for your research.
FDLP, The Federal Depository Library Program, makes information produced by Federal agencies available for public access at no cost, providing government information to all who wish to receive it.
This depository bases its selections upon the needs of the University community and local patrons in Buies Creek, Harnett County, and surrounding communities. Item selection lists are exchanged with Mount Olive College and Fayetteville State University. Regular communication and workshop attendance are conducted with Fayetteville State University. Any needs expressed by the faculty, students, or local patrons are documented and considered when updating the Government Documents item selection list. Consideration is taken when changes in the University curriculum could be a cause for deletion or addition of item numbers. All congressional hearings in microfiche format are kept for historical value. In considering new electronic documents, the decision has been made to subscribe to all CDs except those that pertain to states other than North Carolina. The depository subscribes to topographical maps of North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee. Some material, such as tax forms and census materials, is kept in Government Documents because of their usefulness as reference material or for research.
At present Campbell University's Government Documents collection houses about 38% of documents offered by the Government Printing Office, with more than 58,980 printed documents, 145,210 microfiche, 1,120 maps, 190 DVDs, 50 videos, and 2,110 CDs.
The Interlibrary Loan program is available to patrons who need documents not found in Campbell's Government Documents collection. Referrals usually are made to the regional depository at UNC-Chapel Hill. Fayetteville State University is also contacted if needed.
These sources are good to use to find newspaper articles.
Finding diaries and autobiographies requires using the online catalogs tools to find what you want. A diary or autobiography is written by the subject of the diary or autobiography. So if you wanted to find an autobiography on Booker T. Washington, you would go into the OneSearch, do an Advanced search, select Author from the Any field box, then where is says Enter a search term, type in Booker T. Washington. Amo.ng the results you will find Up from slavery an autobiography.
There is no guarantee that an individual has written an autobiography or diary, but this is one way to check.