National History Day Help

Doing Historical Research

Having trouble with your topic? Not sure where or how to start? Remember these tips to help you in your National History Day research.

Historical Research 101:

Make a Personal Connection!!

You will do better if you choose a topic with personal relevance

Ask family members or family friends for research ideas

Try a local history topics, or a topic dealing with students of the same age in a different historical era.

Small is Beautiful!

You'll have a manageable number of sources

You'll have the ability to work with archival collections

You will often have a personal connection to the topic

You 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!

Make sure you answer the "so what?" question

Or...determine that it's all been said before

The Research Process:

Pick a topic.

Get background information from subject-specific reference books.

Get detailed information from books, manuscripts and archival collections.

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Resources at McIntyre Library and Other Local Agencies

Archives and Special Collections: SC&A is different from other library departments because the resources available are extremely rare or unique and irreplaceable. SC&A is a Wisconsin Historical Society Area Research Center (ARC). It holds local government records and manuscripts pertaining to the following counties: Buffalo, Chippewa, Clark, Eau Claire, Rusk, and Taylor. SC&A also collects local history publications, including: city directories, church and organizational histories, county and city histories, and genealogical reference books.
Chippewa Valley Museum
L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library: Look through the library's local history research pages for access to historic newpapers online, The Virtual Museum of the Chippewa Valley, and the local history database. The local history research page also provides links to several external sites of value for student researchers.
Wisconsin Historical Society: The Teacher & Students pages have a lot of great links to digital collections, primary sources and state histories.

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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.

If you already have a Facebook account, just join our National History Day, Northwest Wisconsin Region Support Group.

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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 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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National History Day Student Resources and help from the librarians at...

Historical Research 101:

Searching for Materials

National History Day
Student Resources
and help from the librarians at...