Finding the right topic

I have an idea for a topic, now what? Narrow down the topic and connect it to the theme…

Selecting a National History Day topic is a process of gradually narrowing down the area of history (period or event) that interests you to a manageable subject. For example, if you’re interested in Native Americans and the theme is Rights and Responsibilities in History, a natural topic would be treaty rights. Now from there, you would consider the resources you have available to you—perhaps your local historical society—and possibly choose a Native American/U.S. treaty based in your state’s history. Your process might look something like this:

Theme: Rights and Responsibilities in History
Interest: Native Americans
Topic: Treaty Rights
Issue: 1788 Fort Schuyler Treaty

Or, if you’re interested in Women’s Rights and the theme is the Individual in History, you might choose voting rights. Next, consider where you might find further information on voting rights like a public library. After a library search and reading several texts about the era, you identify the women’s suffrage movement as a topic, and then a leader in the struggle for the vote, Alice Paul. In this case, your process looks like this:

Theme: Individual in History
Interest: Women’s Rights
Topic: Suffrage Movement
Issue/Individual: Alice Paul

Or what if you are interested in The Civil War and the theme is Turning Points in History? You might read about the different battles. Utilizing the internet, you can take virtual tours and learn about different battles through the National Park Service. For instance, http://www.nps.gov/gett takes you to The Battle of Gettysburg or http://www.nps.gov/mana will take you to the battle of Bull Run. Pay close attention to other recommended resources as you read. They may point you to further reading on your topic. After reading the websites, you decide the turning point in The Civil War is The Battle of Gettysburg. The process looks like this:

Theme: Turning Points in History
Interest: The Civil War
Topic: Battles
Issue/Events: The Battle of Gettysburg

Or what if you are interested in science and the theme is Innovation in History? You might research medical discoveries that changed the world like the discovery of penicillin or isolating DNA. Look for resources in libraries, excellent web sites and history of science museums. The process for narrowing your topic and connecting with the theme might follow this sequence:

Theme: Innovation in History
Interest: Science
Topic: Medical Discoveries
Issue/Discovery: Penicillin

Sometimes just looking through the local paper can give you a great idea for a topic! Check out today’s Headline from The New Journal, can you come up with a topic from this article? Leave your idea in the comment section below!

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20120928/NEWS/309280032/Pa-refinery-gets-new-life-fracking-gas-facility

Evaluating Internet Research Sources

By Robert Harris

Information is a Commodity Available in Many Flavors

Think about the magazine section in your local grocery store. If you reach out with your eyes closed and grab the first magazine you touch, you are about as likely to get a supermarket tabloid as you are a respected journal (actually more likely, since many respected journals don’t fare well in grocery stores). Now imagine that your grocer is so accommodating that he lets anyone in town print up a magazine and put it in the magazine section. Now if you reach out blindly, you might get the Elvis Lives with Aliens Gazette just as easily as Atlantic Monthly or Time.

Welcome to the Internet. As I hope my analogy makes clear, there is an extremely wide variety of material on the Internet, ranging in its accuracy, reliability, and value. Unlike most traditional information media (books, magazines, organizational documents), no one has to approve the content before it is made public. It’s your job as a searcher, then, to evaluate what you locate, in order to determine whether it suits your needs.

Information Exists on a Continuum of Reliability and Quality

Information is everywhere on the Internet, existing in large quantities and continuously being created and revised. This information exists in a large variety of kinds (facts, opinions, stories, interpretations, statistics) and is created for many purposes (to inform, to persuade, to sell, to present a viewpoint, and to create or change an attitude or belief). For each of these various kinds and purposes, information exists on many levels of quality and reliability. It ranges from very good to very bad and includes every shade in between. 

Pre-evaluation

The first stage of evaluating your sources takes place before you do any searching. Take a minute to ask yourself what exactly you are looking for. Do you want facts, opinions (authoritative or just anyone’s), reasoned arguments, statistics, narratives, eyewitness reports, descriptions? Is the purpose of your research to get new ideas, to find either factual or reasoned support for a position, to survey opinion, or something else? Once you decide on this, you will be able to screen sources much more quickly by testing them against your research goal. If, for example, you are writing a research paper, and if you are looking for both facts and well-argued opinions to support or challenge a position, you will know which sources can be quickly passed by and which deserve a second look, simply by asking whether each source appears to offer facts and well-argued opinions, or just unsupported claims.

Select Sources Likely to be Reliable

Becoming proficient at selecting sources will require experience, of course, but even a beginning researcher can take a few minutes to ask, “What source or what kind of source would be the most credible for providing information in this particular case?” Which sources are likely to be fair, objective, lacking hidden motives, showing quality control? It is important to keep these considerations in mind, so that you will not simply take the opinion of the first source or two you can locate. By thinking about these issues while searching, you will be able to identify suspicious or questionable sources more readily. With so many sources to choose from in a typical search, there is no reason to settle for unreliable material.

But Wait a Minute

Remember that to locate fair, objective material, you must be fair and objective, too. A major error that too many researchers make is to look only for sources whose ideas, findings, or arguments they already agree with. It’s fine to have a sense of where you think you are going, but you should be open to opposing ideas and not discount them just because you don’t like them or because they conflict with your planned direction. The best researchers usually don’t start out “to prove X.” Instead, they start out “to find out about X.” Be careful not to fall into that circular reasoning trap by thinking, “Books expressing that view are unreliable.”

Reliable Information is Power

You may have heard that “knowledge is power,” or that information, the raw material of knowledge, is power. But the truth is that only some information is power: reliable information. Information serves as the basis for beliefs, decisions, choices, and understanding our world. If we make a decision based on wrong or unreliable information, we do not have power–we have defeat. If we eat something harmful that we believe to be safe, we can become ill; if we avoid something good that we believe to be harmful, we have needlessly restricted the enjoyment of our lives. The same thing applies to every decision to travel, purchase, or act, and every attempt to understand. 

Source Evaluation is an Art

Source evaluation–the determination of information quality–is something of an art. That is, there is no single perfect indicator of reliability, truthfulness, or value. Instead, you must make an inference from a collection of clues or indicators, based on the use you plan to make of your source. If, for example, what you need is a reasoned argument, then a source with a clear, well-argued position can stand on its own, without the need for a prestigious author to support it. On the other hand, if you need a judgment to support (or rebut) some position, then that judgment will be strengthened if it comes from a respected source. If you want reliable facts, then using facts from a source that meets certain criteria of quality will help assure the probability that those facts are indeed reliable. 

The CARS Checklist

The CARS Checklist (Credibility, Accuracy, Reasonableness, Support) is designed for ease of learning and use. Few sources will meet every criterion in the list, and even those that do may not possess the highest level of quality possible. But if you learn to use the criteria in this list, you will be much more likely to separate the high quality information from the poor quality information.

The CARS Checklist for Information Quality

Credibility

Because people have always made important decisions based on information, evidence of authenticity and reliability–or credibility, believability–has always been important. If you read an article saying that the area where you live will experience a major earthquake in the next six months, it is important that you should know whether or not to believe the information. Some questions you might ask would include, What about this source makes it believable (or not)? How does this source know this information? Why should I believe this source over another? As you can see, the key to credibility is the question of trust.

There are several tests you can apply to a source to help you judge how credible and useful it will be: 

Author’s Credentials

• The author or source of the information should show some evidence of being knowledgeable, reliable, and truthful. Here are some clues: 
• Author’s education, training, and/or experience in a field relevant to the information. Look for biographical information, the author’s title or position of employment 
• Author provides contact information (email or snail mail address, phone number) 
• Organizational authorship from a known and respected organization (corporate, governmental, or non-profit) 
• Author’s reputation or standing among peers. 
• Author’s position (job function, title)

Evidence of Quality Control

• Most scholarly journal articles pass through a peer review process, whereby several readers must examine and approve content before it is published. Statements issued in the name of an organization have almost always been seen and approved by several people. (But note the difference between, “Allan Thornton, employee of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency, says that a new ice age is near,” and “The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency said today that a new ice age is near.” The employee is speaking for himself, whereas a statement in the name of NOAA represents the official position of NOAA.) 
• Evidence of quality control of Internet material includes these items: 
• Information presented on organizational web sites 
• On-line journals that use refereeing (peer review) by editors or others 
• Postings of information taken from books or journals that have a quality control process 

Metainformation

• Metainformation is information about information. Information workers (sometimes called knowledge workers) all over the world are constantly poring over, processing, and evaluating information–and making notes. As the challenges produced by the increasing quantity of information continue, access to high quality metainformation will become increasingly important. Metainformation can take many forms, but there are two basic types, summary and evaluative. 
• Summary metainformation includes all the shortened forms of information, such as abstracts, content summaries, or even tables of contents. This type of metainformation gives us a quick glance at what a work is about and allows us to consider many different sources without having to go through them completely. 
• Evaluative metainformation includes all the types that provide some judgment or analysis of content. This type includes recommendations, ratings, reviews, and commentaries. Even the search results order of pages from a search engine like Google represents a type of evaluative metainformation, since pages are ranked in part by the number of other pages linked to them (and hence “voting” for them in some sense).
• And, of course, these two types can be combined, resulting in the best form of metainformation, providing us with a quick overview and some evaluation of the value. An examples would be a World Wide Web yellow pages or directory which describes each selected site and provides evaluations of its content. 

Indicators of Lack of Credibility

You can sometimes tell by the tone, style, or competence of the writing whether or not the information is suspect. Here are a few clues: 

Anonymity 

• Lack of Quality Control 
• Negative Metainformation. If all the reviews are critical, be careful.
• Bad grammar or misspelled words. Most educated people use grammar fairly well and check their work for spelling errors. An occasional split infinitive or comma in the wrong place is not unusual, but more than two or three spelling or grammar errors is cause for caution, at least. Whether the errors come from carelessness or ignorance, neither puts the information or the writer in a favorable light. 

Accuracy

The goal of the accuracy test is to assure that the information is actually correct: up to date, factual, detailed, exact, and comprehensive. For example, even though a very credible writer said something that was correct twenty years ago, it may not be correct today. Similarly, a reputable source might be giving up-to-date information, but the information may be only partial, and not give the full story. Here are some concepts related to accuracy:

Timeliness

• Some work is timeless, like the classic novels and stories, or like the thought provoking philosophical work of Aristotle and Plato. Other work has a limited useful life because of advances in the discipline (psychological theory, for example), and some work is outdated very quickly (such as technology news). You must therefore be careful to note when the information you find was created, and then decide whether it is still of value (and how much value). You may need information within the past ten years, five years, or even two weeks. But old is not necessarily bad: nineteenth-century American history books or literary anthologies can be highly educational because they can function as comparisons with what is being written or anthologized now. In many cases, though, you want accurate, up-to-date information. 
• An important idea connected with timeliness is the dynamic, fluid nature of information and the fact that constant change means constant changes in timeliness. The facts we learn today may be timely now, but tomorrow will not be. Especially in technology, science, medicine, business, and other fields always in flux, we must remember to check and re-check our data from time to time, and realize that we will always need to update our facts.
• Note: Many Web pages display today’s date automatically, regardless of when the content on the page was created. If you see today’s date on a page other than from a news site, be extra careful.

Comprehensiveness

• Any source that presents conclusions or that claims (explicitly or implicitly) to give a full and rounded story, should reflect the intentions of completeness and accuracy. In other words, the information should be comprehensive. Some writers argue that researchers should be sure that they have “complete” information before making a decision or that information must be complete. But with the advent of the information age, such a goal is impossible, if by “complete” we mean all possible information. No one can read 20,000 articles on the same subject before coming to a conclusion or making a decision. And no single piece of information will offer the truly complete story–that’s why we rely on more than one source. On the other hand, an information source that deliberately leaves out important facts, qualifications, consequences, or alternatives may be misleading or even intentionally deceptive.

Audience and Purpose

• For whom is this source intended and for what purpose? If, for example, you find an article, “How Plants Grow,” and children are the intended audience, then the material may be too simplified for your college botany paper. More important to the evaluation of information is the purpose for which the information was created. For example, an article titled, “Should You Buy or Lease a Car?” might have been written with the purpose of being an objective analysis, but it may instead have been written with the intention of persuading you that leasing a car is better than buying. In the latter case, the information will most likely be biased or distorted. Such information is not useless, but the bias must be taken into consideration when interpreting and using the information. (In some cases, you may need to find the truth by using only biased sources, some biased in one direction and some biased in the other.) Be sure, then, that the intended audience and purpose of the article are appropriate to your requirements or at least clearly in evidence so that you may take them into account. Information pretending to objectivity but possessing a hidden agenda of persuasion or a hidden bias is among the most common kind of information in our culture.

Indicators of a Lack of Accuracy

• In addition to an obvious tone or style that reveals a carelessness with detail or accuracy, there are several indicators that may mean the source is inaccurate, either in whole or in part:
• No date on the document 
• Vague or sweeping generalizations 
• Old date on information known to change rapidly
• Very one sided view that does not acknowledge opposing views or respond to them

 

Reasonableness

The test of reasonableness involves examining the information for fairness, objectivity, moderateness, and consistency.

Fairness

• Fairness includes offering a balanced, reasoned argument, not selected or slanted. Even ideas or claims made by the source’s opponents should be presented in an accurate manner. Pretending that the opponent has wild, irrational ideas or arguments no one could accept is to commit the straw man fallacy. A good information source will also possess a calm, reasoned tone, arguing or presenting material thoughtfully and without attempting to get you emotionally worked up. Pay attention to the tone and be cautious of highly emotional writing. Angry, hateful, critical, spiteful tones often betray an irrational and unfair attack underway rather than a reasoned argument. And writing that attempts to inflame your feelings to prevent you from thinking clearly is also unfair and manipulative.

Objectivity

• There is no such thing as pure objectivity, but a good writer should be able to control his or her biases. Be aware that some organizations are naturally not neutral. For example, a professional anti-business group will find, say, that some company or industry is overcharging for widgets. The industry trade association, on the other hand, can be expected to find that no such overcharging is taking place. Be on the lookout for slanted, biased, politically distorted work. 
• One of the biggest hindrances to objectivity is conflict of interest. Sometimes an information source will benefit in some way (usually financially, but sometimes politically or even emotionally or psychologically) if that source can get you to accept certain information rather than the pure and objective truth. For example, many sites that sell “natural” products (cosmetics, vitamins, clothes) often criticize their competitors for selling bad, unhealthy or dangerous products. The criticism may be just, but because the messenger will gain financially if you believe the message, you should be very careful–and check somewhere else before spending money or believing the tale.

Moderateness

• Moderateness is a test of the information against how the world really is. Use your knowledge and experience to ask if the information is really likely, possible, or probable. Most truths are ordinary. If a claim being made is surprising or hard to believe, use caution and demand more evidence than you might require for a lesser claim. Claims that seem to run against established natural laws also require more evidence. In other words, do a reality check. Is the information believable? Does it make sense? Or do the claims lack face validity? That is, do they seem to conflict with what you already know in your experience, or do they seem too exaggerated to be true? “Half of all Americans have had their cars stolen.” Does that pass the face validity test? Have half of your friends had their cars stolen? Is the subject on the news regularly (as we might assume it would be if such a level of theft were the case)? 
• It is important, of course, to remember that some truths are spectacular and immoderate. Over the past few decades, Michel Lotito, a French performer with the stage name of Monsieur Mangetout (French for “eats everything”) has actually eaten 18 bicycles, several TV sets, a few shopping carts, and a small airplane by first having them ground into a fine powder and sprinkling a few teaspoonfuls on his breakfast cereal each morning. So do not automatically reject a claim or source simply because it is astonishing. Just be extra careful about checking it out.

Consistency

• The consistency test simply requires that the argument or information does not contradict itself. Sometimes when people spin falsehoods or distort the truth, inconsistencies or even contradictions show up. These are evidence of unreasonableness.

World View

• A writer’s view of the world (political, economic, religious–including anti-religious–and philosophical) often influences his or her writing profoundly, from the subjects chosen to the slant, the issues raised, issues ignored, fairness to opponents, kinds of examples, and so forth. World view can be an evaluative test because some world views in some people cause quite a distortion in their view of reality or their world view permits them to fabricate evidence or falsify the positions of others. For some writers, political agendas take precedence over truth. If you are looking for truth, such sources are not the best.

Indicators of a Lack of Reasonableness

• Writers who put themselves in the way of the argument, either emotionally or because of self interest, often reveal their lack of reasonableness. If, for example, you find a writer reviewing a book he opposes by asserting that “the entire book is completely worthless claptrap,” you might suspect there is more than a reasoned disagreement at work. Here are some clues to a lack of reasonableness:
• Intemperate tone or language (“stupid jerks,” “shrill cries of my extremist opponents”) 
• Overclaims (“Thousands of children are murdered every day in the United States.”) 
• Sweeping statements of excessive significance (“This is the most important idea ever conceived!”) 
• Conflict of Interest (“Welcome to the Old Stogie Tobacco Company Home Page. To read our report, ‘Cigarettes Make You Live Longer,’ click here.” or “The products our competitors make are dangerous and bad for your health.”)

Support

The area of support is concerned with the source and corroboration of the information. Much information, especially statistics and claims of fact, comes from other sources. Citing sources strengthens the credibility of the information. (Remember this when you write a research paper.)

Source Documentation or Bibliography

• Where did this information come from? What sources did the information creator use? Are the sources listed? Is there a bibliography or other documentation? Does the author provide contact information in case you wish to discuss an issue or request further clarification? What kind of support for the information is given? How does the writer know this? It is especially important for statistics to be documented. Otherwise, someone may be just making up numbers. Note that some information from corporate sites consists of descriptions of products, techniques, technologies, or processes with which the corporation is involved. If you are careful to distinguish between facts (“We mix X and Y together to get Z”) and advertising (“This protocol is the best in the industry”), then such descriptions should be reliable. 

Corroboration

• See if other sources support this source. Corroboration or confirmability is an important test of truth. And even in areas of judgment or opinion, if an argument is sound, there will probably be a number of people who adhere to it or who are in some general agreement with parts of it. Whether you’re looking for a fact (like the lyrics to a song or the date of an event), an opinion (like whether paper or plastic is the more environmentally friendly choice), or some advice (like how to grow bromeliads), it is a good idea to triangulate your findings: that is, find at least three sources that agree. If the sources do not agree, do further research to find out the range of opinion or disagreement before you draw your conclusions.

External Consistency

• While the test of corroboration involves finding out whether other sources contain the same new information as the source being evaluated, the test of external consistency compares what is familiar in the new source with what is familiar in other sources. That is, information is usually a mixture of old and new, some things you already know and some things you do not. The test of external consistency asks, Where this source discusses facts or ideas I already know something about, does the source agree or harmonize or does it conflict, exaggerate, or distort? The reasoning is that if a source is faulty where it discusses something you already know, it is likely to be faulty in areas where you do not yet know, and you should therefore be cautious and skeptical about trusting it.

Indicators of a Lack of Support

• As you can readily guess, the lack of supporting evidence provides the best indication that there is indeed no available support. Be careful, then, when a source shows problems like these:
• Numbers or statistics presented without an identified source for them 
• Absence of source documentation when the discussion clearly needs such documentation 
• You cannot find any other sources that present the same information or acknowledge that the same information exists (lack of corroboration)

 

Summary of The CARS Checklist for Research Source Evaluation

• Credibility-trustworthy source, author’s credentials, evidence of quality control, known or respected authority, organizational support. Goal: an authoritative source, a source that supplies some good evidence that allows you to trust it.
• Accuracy-up to date, factual, detailed, exact, comprehensive, audience and purpose reflect intentions of completeness and accuracy. Goal: a source that is correct today (not yesterday), a source that gives the whole truth.
• Reasonableness-fair, balanced, objective, reasoned, no conflict of interest, absence of fallacies or slanted tone. Goal: a source that engages the subject thoughtfully and reasonably, concerned with the truth.
• Support-listed sources, contact information, available corroboration, claims supported, documentation supplied. Goal: a source that provides convincing evidence for the claims made, a source you can triangulate (find at least two other sources that support it). 

 

Living with Information: The CAFÉ Advice

Here is one last piece of advice to help you live well in the world of information: Take your information to the Café (Challenge, Adapt, File, Evaluate).

Challenge

 

Challenge information and demand accountability. Stand right up to the information and ask questions. Who says so? Why do they say so? Why was this information created? Why should I believe it? Why should I trust this source? How is it known to be true? Is it the whole truth? Is the argument reasonable? Who supports it?

Adapt

Adapt your skepticism and requirements for quality to fit the importance of the information and what is being claimed. Require more credibility and evidence for stronger claims. You are right to be a little skeptical of dramatic information or information that conflicts with commonly accepted ideas. The new information may be true, but you should require a robust amount of evidence from highly credible sources.

File

File new information in your mind rather than immediately believing or disbelieving it. Avoid premature closure. Do not jump to a conclusion or come to a decision too quickly. It is fine simply to remember that someone claims XYZ to be the case. You need not worry about believing or disbelieving the claim right away. Wait until more information comes in, you have time to think about the issue, and you gain more general knowledge.

Evaluate

Evaluate and re-evaluate regularly. New information or changing circumstances will affect the accuracy and hence your evaluation of previous information. Recognize the dynamic, fluid nature of information. The saying, “Change is the only constant,” applies to much information, especially in technology, science, medicine, and business.

Building Historical Context and Conducting Research

I have my topic and I know how it is connected to the NHD theme. What do I do next? Build historical context by reading different types of sources…

Nothing in history happens in a vacuum.  To understand the connections between your topic and the time period, begin reading about the time period and as you read ask yourself questions: why did my topic happen at this particular time and in this particular place? What were the events or the influences that came before my topic? How was my topic influenced by and how did it influence the economic, social, political, and cultural climate of the time period?  All of these questions will help you to build the story of your topic and grasp the historical significance.

While you are researching a topic for an NHD project, you will read different types of sources: tertiary sources, secondary sources, and primary sources.

Primary Sources

A primary source is a piece of information about a historical event or period in which the creator of the source was an actual participant in or a contemporary of a historical moment. The purpose of primary sources is to capture the words, the thoughts and the intentions of the past. Primary sources help you to interpret what happened and why it happened.

Examples of primary sources include documents, artifacts, historic sites, songs, or other written and tangible items created during the historical period you are studying.

Secondary Sources

A secondary source is a source that was not created first-hand by someone who participated in the historical era. Secondary sources are usually created by historians, but based on the historian’s reading of primary sources. Secondary sources are usually written decades, if not centuries, after the event occurred by people who did not live through or participate in the event or issue. The purpose of a secondary source is to help build the story of your research from multiple perspectives and to give your research historical context.

An example of a secondary source is Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era by James M. McPherson, published in 1988. They are a great starting point in helping you see the big picture. Understanding the context of your topic will help you make sense of the primary sources that you find.

The primary and secondary sources McPherson used are listed in the bibliography. Another researcher might consult these same primary sources and reach a different conclusion.

Tertiary Sources

Tertiary sources are based on a collection of primary and secondary sources and may or may not be written by an expert. Tertiary sources should never appear in your bibliography but are only used as exploratory sources, to give you ideas about what to research. Wikipedia is not a reliable source and should not be utilized or appear in your bibliography.

Examples are dictionaries, encyclopedias, fact books, and guidebooks.

Citations/Bibliographies

To record the information the two acceptable styles of writing for NHD projects are Turabian and MLA. Historians use Turabian but we know that many classes in middle school and high school teach the MLA style. It does not matter which of these two styles you use, but it is important to be consistent. For help with questions of citations, you can check out Turabian or MLA guides from your local library.

Annotated Bibliography

An annotated bibliography is required for all categories. The annotations for each source must explain how the source was used and how it helped you understand your topic. You should also use the annotation to explain why you categorized a particular source as primary or secondary. Sources of visual materials and oral interviews, if used, must also be included.

List only those sources that you used to develop your entry. An annotation normally should be only 1-3 sentences long.

• Source (example):
  Bates, Daisy. The Long Shadow of Little Rock. 1st ed. New York: David McKay Co. Inc., 1962.
• Annotation (example):
  Daisy Bates was the president of the Arkansas NAACP and the one who met and listened to the students each day. This first-hand account was very important to my paper because it made me more aware of the feelings of the people involved.

• Classification of primary or secondary source. You should use the annotation to explain why you categorized a particular source as primary or secondary, If that is likely to be at all controversial. Historians do sometimes disagree and there’s not always one right answer, so justify your choice to the judges.
• Secondary sources which include primary materials. You also may use the annotation to explain that a book or other secondary source included several primary sources used for the paper. Examples: “This book included three letters between person X on the frontier and person Y back in New England, which provided insight into the struggles and experiences of the settlers.” “This book provided four photos of settlers on the Great Plains and their homes, which were used on the exhibit.” Please note that the materials included in secondary sources, like your text book, are not primary in this instance because they have been taken out if their original context. For example, an image of a painting may have been cropped, or a letter may be missing sentences.
• Fuller explanation of credits for documentaries. You are supposed to give credit in the documentary itself for photos or other primary sources, but you can do this in a general way, such as by writing, “Photos from: National Archives, Ohio Historical Society, A Photographic History of the Civil War” rather than listing each photo individually in the documentary credits, which would take up too much of your allotted 10 minutes. You then must use the annotation in the bibliography to provide more detailed information.

Taken from the National History Day website. www.nationalhistoryday.org

Source Possibilities for Primary Sources

When doing research for your National History Day project you will encounter many primary sources.  These sources are essential to your project.  They give you first hand accounts about your topic.  Considering there are varied amounts of primary sources you can use each one in a way that will give your project the “wow” factor.

Here are some  examples of primary sources and how you can use them to their greatest advantages.  Personal records such as letters, diaries, photo albums, and scrapbooks could help you learn about values, attitudes, first-hand accounts of historical events, uses of technology, and more.  These resources are probably located at local historical societies. Records from organizations and businesses such as inventories, cemetery records, travel brochures, school records, yearbooks, and union records are all great primary sources. They all show different types of history such as economic and educational.  Public organizations such as schools, business, and historical societies would be where you can find these sources.

Paintings, drawings, blueprints, photographs, and other visual records are great primary sources especially if you are doing a documentary or an exhibit.  It allows you to get a realistic view into the time period in which you are studying.  Art museums and historical societies would a great place to look for these sources.  Newspaper and magazines can help you gain information about an event or historical era from writers who may have witnessed the event.  Many libraries and historical societies contain copies of old newspapers.

Interviews are a great primary source.  They give first-hand accounts of important people or events.  You can conduct your own interviews or some maybe pre-recorded and found at your local historical societies.

Now to my personal favorite primary sources, (I know how cool am I that I have a favorite primary source) pop culture sources.  These sources consist of music, advertisements, old TV shows, magazines, and books.  These sources show the values of a certain time period.  These sources can also be found in historical societies and libraries.

Government records such as trade agreements, treaties, census data, and court proceedings allow you to see how the government dealt with various issues.  Local government information is found in local historical societies, while government records are found at the National Archives.  Maps, genealogies, doctoral dissertations, or other academic sources can be full with useful data.  Libraries and historical societies would be the best place to find these sources.  Now go out and go find yourself some amazing primary sources!

-Ali, Delaware Historical Society Intern

NHD Resources at the University of Delaware Library

So I just came back from the University of Delaware library to see if they would have any good resources to meet this year’s theme; Innovation in History: Impact and Change. I went to the Reference room desk and talked to a really nice librarian, Rebecca Knight. She was really helpful and informative. So I thought I would share what she told me with you.

First off you have to be eighteen years or older to check out a book from the library.  If  you are not, I suggest you go with someone who is (parent, older sibling) so they can take out the book. Before you go to the library there is a way to check if the UD library contains the electronic reserves that you may need. Go to http://www.udel.edu. Go to the libraries tab on the top and click on Morris Library. Once you are there on the top it says Subject Guides, click on that. From there click on History and then Resources for National History Day (third from the bottom). Look around this site. It was made especially to help you and there truly are some great resources on this site.

The electronic reserves are a great place to look for primary documents. For example, they have maps and pictures which could be great for any exhibit, documentary, or paper. In Databases, I clicked on the New York Times and searched DuPont – Nylon. I found all of these old advertisements from the 1940s about socks made with DuPont Nylon. I thought that was so cool. But in order for you to print out these resources, you have to go the University of Delaware Library. It does cost to print there, but it’s totally worth it.

I also learned the University has a collection of patents online. If you are doing a certain invention and know the patent number, you can search it and see the original patent, what a great primary source! There is also a section of the library called juvenile literature: they may have great secondary sources in that section.  If you’re interested in visiting the special collections, make sure they have resources related to your topic first.  There are a lot of regulations that go along with special collections so  look those up at the library website and email the librarian if you have any questions.

And remember don’t be afraid to ask a librarian for help. They are there for a reason. I have done many a research projects at UD and it wasn’t for the librarian my 25 page papers wouldn’t have been as good as they were without their assistance.

Ali, Delaware Historical Society intern

Top 10 Tips on Researching in a Library

Libraries, especially ones you are not familiar with, can be a bit overwhelming at times. You don’t know where to start looking and seems like everyone around you knows what they are doing except you.

Well, don’t worry.I have ten tips on using the library to make your visit as easy as possible.

1. Go see the reference librarian. Usually my first problem when I go to a library is I do not know where to go. Well, the person who can tell you what you need to know is the reference librarian.  They know the libraries collection very well and can tell you right away if their library has something that can help you in your research or not. They can also instruct you on how to use their library catalog.

2. Remember library ethics. Do not steal written materials; there are photocopiers and scanners available.

3. Learn how to use the library’s search system. Especially if you have never been to that library before, ask someone to assist you with the library’s search system. They will teach the certain key words you may need to help you with your search.

4. Learn to browse. Browse catalogues with books about your topic. Browse book shelves, pull out books and look at their table of contents to get an idea of what’s being covered. Also look at the video and audio collections. Also look into the reference room, there maybe books there that can also help you.

5. Surf the bibliographies (but leave your surfboard at home). Follow up on bibliographic resources or in other words look at the sources that other authors used. Since you are looking up resources that were relevant to that author, there is a good chance that is probably relevant to your topic as well.

6. Use the reference section. In the reference section you can easily find general information about your topic from dictionaries, biographies, almanacs, and other specialized reference material (such as specialized encyclopedias).

7. Search for journal articles and newspapers, not just books. Most libraries have magazines and journal articles on print, CD-ROM, or online.

8. Search for specialized sources using online and portable databases. WORLDCAT is the world’s largest online library catalog. If you start your research in time, you can issue an interlibrary loan (or in other words just borrowing a book from another library). Large libraries usually have a collection of databases on line or on CD-ROM.

9. Search for materials everywhere, and use interlibrary loans to get them. Through WORLDCAT you can see what books other libraries have and request to have it sent to your library so that you can use it.

10. Persevere and keep asking questions!!!!  Keep consulting with your reference librarian as you continue your researching process.

I hope these tips helped and see you at the library!

Ali, Delaware Historical Society intern

Research Question/Connection to NHD theme

Research is driven by questions; not just any old questions but good ones.

These questions should stem from your curiosity and at the same time you should be thinking like a historian.  The following are examples which are good questions:  When did my topic occur in history?  Where did my topic occur?  What causes led up to my topic?  How does my topic fir into the broader context of what was happening in history at the time?  What effects did my topic have at the time and for the future?  How did the issues surrounding my topic change over time?  What impact or influence did my topic have on the nation of the world?  Why is my topic significant today?

One thing that is important to keep in mind is the connection of your topic to the National History Day theme.  Creating a statement between your topic and the theme can help you make sure that your topic meets the theme.  Here’s an example.  History Day theme= Turning Points in History Basic Interest Area= Civil War Narrowed Subject= Battle of Gettysburg Main idea to connect topic to theme= the Battle of Gettysburg was a major turning point of the Civil War because the Union began to gain advantage over the South. Now from this you can start working on a title.  The title of your research should include both the overall topic and the specific issue of your work.  For example, The Battle of Gettysburg: Turning the Tides of War.

Ali, Delaware Historical Society Intern

NHD Web Site Discussion TODAY!

Join National History Day for an online discussion about the website category.

When: Today, Tuesday, November 10 3:00 – 5:00 pm EST

Where: Logon to the discussion page on the NHD website: http://www.nhd.org/Webdiscussion.htm

Who: All NHD participants. Students and teachers are especially encouraged to send us their questions! They will be answered by staff here at the NHD national office.

How: Email your web site category questions to info@nhd.org starting on Friday, November 6 with “online discussion question” in the subject line.

We will post answers to these on Tuesday at the start of the online discussion. From 3 – 5, you can participate in a live online discussion by sending questions to the same email, info@nhd.org and watch the answers post on our website.

Remember – this online discussion is all about the web site category and the new changes for this year.

Mark your calendars! A second NHD Online Discussion will be held Wednesday, December 2 about the Annual Theme – Innovation in History:

Impact and Change

Judging Schedules

Hi all,

Below is a link to the NHD in Delaware web-site where the judging schedules are listed for next Saturday’s National History Competition.  Please keep in mind that these COULD still change so make sure you check back regularly double check.

Scroll down to the link under “Schedule of Events and Room Maps” to open up the PDF.

http://de.nhd.org/DatesandTimes.htm

Ellen and I are both looking forward to next Saturday!!!!

Andrea

Text Tags and Hovers

This is from Ann Claugh, The Director for Curriculum for NHD.  It was originally posted through the H-History Net Listserve.

The website category is new and exciting. I am amazed watching students perform tasks on the computer that were once reserved only for the seasoned IT. But knowledge doesn’t always need to lead to action. A question has surfaced about text tags and hovers. When do text tags enhance or detract from the website? After talking to the IT for National History Day I understand the purpose of the hover is to be an extended explanation of the text. If you have students using text tags challenge the students to self check: Could I have said what needed to be said within the text without using a hover or text tag? If the text tag did count in the word limit, would I be over my limit? If so, how far? Why did I choose to use a hover instead of writing the information in the text? Just some food for thought… Ann Claunch Director of Curriculum National History Day

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The H-History Day is an online resource for NHD if you’re interested!  http://www.h-net.org/~histday/