Many students are using online citation programs, such as Easy Bib or Noodle Bib, to generate their citations. While these programs can sometimes be helpful as students assemble their bibliographies, there are certain flaws that can result in incorrect citations. For example, when using Easy Bib’s MLA style to cite a government document, the citation formula does not ask for an original date of publication. Students citing the United States Constitution, as found on the Library of Congress website, will be asked for the date the document was published on the website and the date the document was accessed, but not for the original publication date.

Be cautious of online citation generators. History Day rules require the bibliography citations to be in either MLA or Turabian style, and certain citations assembled online do not match either of these. In general, it is always a good idea to have students use the printed guides, “A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations” by Kate Turabian or “MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers” by Joseph Gibaldi, instead of using the online generators. It’s similar to the skill of telling time or doing long division; digital clocks and calculators are available, but students still need to learn how to read traditional clocks and do long division by hand. Additionally, the online generators seem easier, but in many cases it is more complicated than simply referencing one of these books.

If the books are not available at your school library, here are a few helpful citation guides online for Turabian and MLA.

There is exciting progress in the effort to digitize historic newspapers in Minnesota!

The Minnesota Historical Society has been working with the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), thanks to a grant made possible by NEH and the Library of Congress.  They have just finished their first grant cycle and have digitized and made available online 25 years of The Saint Paul Globe Newspaper (and its earlier titles: Daily Globe and St. Paul Daily Globe), from 1880-1905 and one year of the Minneapolis Journal newspaper (1901).

These newspapers can be found on the Chronicling America website – http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

In the next grant cycle more years of the Journal will be added, as well as several other newspaper titles from around Minnesota.  About 15 other states also have newspapers up on Chronicling America. Compared to the days of looking at microfilm, Chronicling America is an amazing resource – both for the ability to view the newspapers and to search their content online.  Images can be downloaded and printed out.

You can search by newspaper and year, and can search individual newspaper pages using a keyword search.  The keyword search is particularly neat and is an extremely fast way to search for information on your topic. This is a great way to access primary sources and find visuals for your projects in the form of newspaper headlines and political cartoons.

If you are doing a Minnesota topic be sure to check out the website!

Happy Researching! - Laura

For many History Day students, research will entail a few trips to the school library and multiple trips to the Internet. But the school library only has so many books on World War II and women’s suffrage, and the Internet certainly has its limitations. Encouraging students (or enticing them with extra credit) to move beyond school walls and the allure of Google will not only improve their research experience and skills, but it will also help them create more well-rounded projects.

• Conduct Interviews. Students who interview participants in historic events or experts on historical topics come away with a face-to-face connection to their topic. Try local community colleges, veterans’ groups or county historical societies for potential interviewees.
• Visit Local Repositories. County historical societies often have gems within their resource collections, including war letters, scrapbooks, local newspapers, church records and immigration resources. The Minnesota Historical Society has links to several state organizations.
• Take a Research Field Trip. Either as a class or individually, student research field trips can present excellent resources. Historic sites are fun and hands-on, but they can also be considered primary sources.
• Visit a Large University Library. University libraries can be intimidating, but if you get in contact with the librarians beforehand, they can often have resources, programs or staff prepared to help students navigate the floors upon floors of resources.
• Contact Long-Distance Repositories. If the resources a student needs are only available at a university or museum several states away, they might give up since they cannot travel to the repository itself. But students can contact the librarians or educators at that facility, and oftentimes negotiate interviews or photocopies of documents.
• Access Business Archives. Organizations like Wells Fargo and Mayo Clinic often have archives that relate to their business activities, or have accessioned their documents to another respository.

Some of you may have students who are already thinking about primary sources for their History Day projects. But even if that step is far in the future for you and your students, it’s not a bad idea to start compiling a list of reliable websites where students can access some excellent primary sources. Of course, we always encourage students to get their hands on actual primary sources at libraries and archives, but the Internet is becoming a better and better resource for young researchers.

Here are a few sites that have some excellent primary sources available:

Library of Congress American Memory: Encourage your students to narrow the field as much as possible by choosing specific collections. The Teachers’ section of this website also has some excellent, subject-sorted sources.

National Archives History Day Resources: The Archives assembled some of their sources related to particular Innovation topics, as well as connections to other topics within the subject areas.

Harvard University Library Open Collections: Harvard has collected some intriguing sources based on four different topics — Women and Work, Immigration, Diseases and Epidemics, and Expeditions and Discoveries. Women Working is particularly helpful.

Yale Law School Avalon Project: The documents from Yale Law span several thousand years, although more are available in recent centuries. The topics are mainly law and diplomacy.

Famous Trials: A law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City has assembled documents and context about more than 50 famous trials, from the Trial of Socrates to the Trial of Zacarias Moussaoui.

American Journeys: This collection contains thousands of documents related to the exploration of America, from 1000 to 1844, including the journals of Lewis and Clark.

There are many more fantastic websites with extensive primary sources, but these are a few reliable sites with vast holdings. If you encounter others, feel free to pass along the tip!

Hey Students,

So back from break, and back in school… I remember that feeling like it was yesterday…

As school has started up again it means that History Day season is in full swing. We hope you guys are working hard at putting together an awesome project for this year…

 What’s that? You don’t even have a topic selected yet? No worries, we have you covered. This year we have expanded our outreach and are offering History Day specific events at libraries here at the Minnesota History Center, St. Paul, and Minneapolis. At these library events you can:

• Research your topic and find new sources
• Get individual help from History Day staff
• Receive advice from librarians
• Have fun with other History Day students!

The dates we have set up are as follows:

@ The Minnesota History Center Library - 9AM-12PM, January 17^th, 2009

@ Minneapolis: 

• Ridgedale Library - 5:30PM-8:30PM, January 12^th, 2009
• Minneapolis Central Library - 11AM-3PM, January 31^st, February 21^st, March 7^th, 2009

@ St. Paul:

• Rondo Outreach Library - 11:30AM-2:30PM, January 24^th, February 7^th and 14^th, 2009
• St. Paul Central Library - 3PM-6PM, January 12^th and 26^th, February 2^nd, 9^th, and 23^rd, 2009

Let us know if you have any questions.  We hope to see you there!

As you all head off for a few weeks of much-deserved time off, consider a History Day assignment for your students over the break. In January, research is much more intense and in February, students are frantically trying to assemble their projects, and then all of a sudden, it’s March. Having students complete a History Day assigment over their holiday break keeps their topics fresh in their minds and allows them to make some headway. Here’s a couple ideas:

• Require them to visit a library, whether it’s a public, university or historical society library.
• Charge them to set up or prepare for a personal interview.
• Have them draft a first version of a thesis statement, if they have completed some research.
• Ask them to begin seeking out primary sources, starting with the Internet or sources they may have at home, such as old yearbooks, family photo albums, or old newspapers.

When you arrive back at school in January, you will be receiving your “Winter Bundle” packet of information from us, which includes your Participation Survey. This is the most important information we need from you – an accurate count of the total number of projects in each category being created at your school. It is very important that you provide an accurate total, as these are the numbers we use to determine how many projects you will be allowed to send to the regional events. Your surveys are due to us by January 23. If you have questions about how we determine the number of projects allotted in each regional event, don’t hesitate to give us a call. We try to be as fair as possible, without making the regional events overwhelming in size!

Have a happy and safe holiday season!