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History Day Guide
Primary sources
A primary source is the “original”. Done by the people involved at the time being studied. It could be a literary or philosophical work, an historical document, first hand newspaper or magazine accounts, the report of original research, original data, a photograph, a speech, letters, pamphlets, posters, eyewitness accounts, diaries or journals, official records like birth, death or taxes, audio/visual recordings.
Primary Sources - these various online databases, accessible at the library and from home with a library card number, include primary sources.
National Archives - Federal records that are judged to have continuing value: textual records; military and census records; maps, charts, and architectural drawings; photographs; machine-readable data sets; and reels of film and videotapes.
American Memory - access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience.
Making of America - digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology.
ALA guide to finding primary sources - a guide to defining, researching, evaluating primary sources on the internet.
Books and AudioVisual Materials
Search the library catalog
Click on the SUBJECT button and type inventions to see general works. Use Last name, First name to search specific people (i.e. franklin benjamin).
Click on the KEYWORD ANYWHERE button and search individual topics. Be sure to try different synonyms or broader categories. For example, to find information on the invention of toilets you might try these phrases:
history bathrooms history toilet
history water closet invention toilet
thomas crapper
Other recommended links:
History Center of Olmsted County - search for obituaries, weddings, probate records, census information, military history and subjects from events and people in Olmsted County.
MN Reflections - images and documents from organizations around Minnesota documenting people, places and events.
Minnesota State Historical Society - guides for parents, students, teachers on History Day, helps for doing research, links to Minnesota topics.
US Patent and Trademark - search applications for inventions. Some include brief history of an item.
Scholar.google.com - scholary information from a variety of sources, patents and legal documents.
Books.google.com - full-text and partial contents of books on many topics and from many organizations Google has digitized.
Inventions & Inventors - links to sites about inventions, inventors and technology timelines
National History day - information about History Day competition, resources for teachers and students.
Last updated: 01/19/2010
Secondary sources
A secondary source is where other people who did not experience the event write about or comment on it. Examples are: biographies, writing about literary or philosophical texts , political or historical events, discussions of scientific data, or studies of issues, newspaper or magazine articles not written from eyewitness accounts or people involved.
Magazine Indexes - accessible at the library and from home with a library card number. Over 15,000 full-text articles on a variety of subjects. Some are especially useful to middle and high school students like InfoTrac, MAS, Student Resource Center Gold
Newspaper Indexes - accessible at the library and from home with a library card number. Includes The Historical New York Times (1851-2006), Minneapolis Tribune (1867 - 1922)