* A secondary source is basedbuilt onfrom primary sources. Secondary sources are not required to provide you with a bibliography, but you should have some reason to believe that the materialsource inis building on the sourcefoundation isof notprior entirelysources rather than starting with all-new material. For example, century-old love letters on display at a museum are primary sources; a secondary source might analyze the contents of these letters. The fact that the analysis is based on these letters would be evident from the description in the source, even if the paper contained no footnotes.
* A secondary source is significantly separated from these primary sources. A reporter's notebook is an (unpublished) primary source, and the news story published by the reporter based on those notes is also a primary source. This is because the sole purpose of the notes in the notebook is to produce the news storyreport. If a journalist later reads dozens of these primary-source news storiesreports and uses those articles to write a book about a major event, then this resulting work is a secondary source. This separation is not defined by the length of time that elapses or geographical distance.
* A secondary source ''usually'' provides analysis, commentary, evaluation, context, and interpretation. It is this act of going beyond simple description, and telling us the meaning behind the simple facts, that makes them valuable to Wikipedia.
* AReputable secondary sourcesources isare ''usually'' based on more than one primary source. High-quality secondary sources often synthesize together multiple primary sources, in due proportion to the expert-determined quality of the primary sources. This helps us present the material in due proportion to the sources' actual importance, rather than in due proportion to the size of the sources' budgets.
