Here's access to the PowerPoint that Colleen and Kati developed for our presentations at the Northwestern Wisconsin Education Association convention, October 12, 2007. Feel free to adapt some of the slides and ideas for your own classroom use.
Historical Research 101:
Make a Personal Connection!!
- Students will do better if they choose a topic with personal relevance
- Encourage students to ask family members or family friends for research ideas
- Encourage local history topics, or topics dealing with students of the same age in a different historical era.
Small is Beautiful!
- Students have a manageable number of sources
- Students have the ability to work with archival collections
- Students can often have a personal connection to the topic
- Students become the expert
Books are Vital!
- More explicit in historical argumentation
- Long, but may be skimmed
- Rich with bibliographical entries for related primary and secondary sources
Find Your Voice!
- Students can answer the "so what?" question
- Or...determine that it's all been said before
The Research Process:
- Pick a topic. (We are better equipped to help students with research topics that are specific to NW Wisconsin or the state.)
- Get background information from subject-specific reference books.
- Get detailed information from books, manuscripts and archival collections.
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We invite teachers to bring small groups of students or entire classes to the library for research help. The Education Librarian, Kati, can meet with classes to talk about the research process, give library tours and show students how to use research databases. The Special Collections Librarian, Colleen, can work with classes on using the Archives and the specifics of doing historical research. However, to maximize students' time at the library it is best to know the topics students wish to reseach a few weeks before the visit so that we can arrange to have archival collections sent here. It's important to remember that we only have collections pertaining to the six country region mentioned above, but with enough notice and specific topic requests we will do our best to get collections from other libraries in the state through the ARC Network.
To arrange for a class visit, view our guidelines. Some of your students may have McIntyre Library cards through the Youth Options or SOAR program.
Checking out books and/or other materials
- To check out materials, we require a UW-Eau Claire campus ID card (Blugold card) or an off-campus user card.
- For high school groups, we will make arrangements for a teacher to check out all student materials on one off-campus user card. To obtain an off-campus user card, please stop by the Library Circulation Desk upon your arrival. Because it can take time to prepare the card, we ask that you do this well before your scheduled check-out and departure time. We require:
- payment of a $10 fee
- presentation of a form of picture ID
- a letter, printed on school letterhead and signed by the school principal, stating the following:
To McIntyre Library:
[Teacher’s name] will be bringing students from [name of school] to visit UW-Eau Claire’s McIntyre Library on [date]. The students should be allowed to check out materials following McIntyre Library procedures.
[Name of school] will be responsible for the return of and/or charges associated with any materials borrowed by our students on this day.
[Name and signature of principal]
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Searching for Materials
- McIntyre Library Catalog (Voyager) provides access to all materials in the University of Wisconsin--Eau Claire Special Collections & Archives except unprocessed university records, unprocessed manuscripts, and maps. Be sure to limit your search to Special Collections. Also use this guide for information on locating historical resources online.
- ArCat provides information about public records and manuscript collections in the Wisconsin Historical Society Archives, and all of the Wisconsin Area Research Centers, including the Eau Claire ARC at the UW-Eau Claire Special Collections & Archives. Most collections in ArCat may be temporarily transferred to the Eau Claire ARC though the ARC Network.
- MadCat is the University of Wisconsin's online catalog. You can log in with guest access. This database will provide you with access to records from the Wisconsin Historical Society's newspaper, book and pamphlet collections. If you or your students wish to request any of these items go through your school media specialist or public librarian to request through interlibrary loan.
- Wisconsin History Portal
provides access to the online collections available through
the Wisconsin Historical Society. These include Turning Points in WI History, Wisconsin Historical Images, Local History & Biography Articles, Wisconsin Name Index, WI Historical Collections, American Journeys, Dictionary of WI History, Wisconsin Magazine of History, Odd Wisconsin, This Day in Wisconsin History, and Roster of WI Volunteers, 1861-1865.
- University of Wisconsin Digital Collections
provides resources that are free and publicly accessible online. They are loosely organized into collections that span a range of subjects including art, ecology, literature, history, music, natural resources, science, social sciences, the State of Wisconsin, and the University of Wisconsin. Digital resources include text-based materials such as books, journal series, and manuscript collections; photographic images; slides; maps; prints; posters; audio; and video.
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Facebook Support Group
We have set up a support group on Facebook to help students, teachers and researchers with National History Day projects. We hope that this will serve as a way to connect teachers who have added NHD to their curriculum by allowing a forum to ask each other questions, share topic ideas or ask for help from the librarians at UWEC.
If you already have a Facebook account, just join our National History Day, Northwest Wisconsin Region Support Group. If you don't have a profile, don't be afraid! It's easy to do. Just create a log-in and password and you're off. Of course, you can always ask one of your students to help you!
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Help!
The librarians at UW-Eau Claire's McIntyre Library are here to help! Don't hesitate to contact us and we'll do our best to get you and/or your students in connection with some great history resources.
Colleen McFarland, Special Collections Librarian
McIntyre Library, 5022
715.836.3873 or mcfarlcd@uwec.edu
Kati Tvaruzka, Education Reference Librarian
McIntyre Library, 1001F
715.836.4522 or tvaruzke@uwec.edu
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