Check out these sites for help with research:
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Get Help from the Denver Public Library with this program designed specifically for National History Day in Colorado: http://denverlibrary.org/let-us-help-you-succeed-national-history-day
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History Colorado (our state Historical Society) http://www.historycolorado.org/researchers/research-aids
- National Archives Specially created page for NHD studuents http://docsteach.org/home/national-history-day
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FUN & instructive videos on history investigation and primary sources, compliments of the Pikes Peak Library: Frozen to Death on Pikes Peak: A Cold Case Investigation on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/27793340
And, Tracing Tesla: The Search for His Lost Laboratory: http://vimeo.com/15042609 - Pikes Peak Library Regional History Series website that features books and DVDs for purchase: http://www.regionalhistoryseries.org/RHS_DVDs_and_Books.htm
- Reading, Writing and Researching for History: A Guide for College Students: This is a very extensive website about researching and writing for history: wwwapps.ups.com/
- National Archives Teacher Pages: This link provides information for teacher about doing research through the National Archives: www.archives.gov/education/history-day/
- National Archives Digital Vaults: This link will allow you access to the digitized collections of the National Archives. www.digitalvaults.org/
- Library of Congress: Teaching with Primary Sources Professional Development through Metropolitan State College of Denver: www.mscd.edu/tps
- American Journeys: This website contains a digital collection of over 17,000 primary source documents: www.americanjourneys.org/
- The Smithsonian Institution: This website is a stepping stone into the world of the Smithsonian Institution: www.si.edu/Researchers www.si.edu/Researchers
- PBS: This link is to the PBS website. Don't forget about viewing professiona; documentaries as secondary sources: www.pbs.org/topics/history/
- Colorado Archives: This is a collection of documents related to Colorado's past: www.colorado.gov/dpa/doit/archives/
- Western History and Geneology--Denver Public Library: This is one of the largest collections of local, state and regional documents. It is housed at the downtown branch of the Denver Public Library: digital.denverlibrary.org/
- Changes to MLA format for National History Day: There have been some changes to the MLA formatting for citing work. Check out the changes here: greaterdenvermetronhd-org1.webs.com/MLA%20bibliography%20changes.pdf
Research Tools
Historical questions arise from our monuments, our habits, our documents, and our broader experience in the world. All historical projects begin as an effort to answer questions about origins, happenings, and consequences - like finding a puzzle and trying to solve it. History also represents a special kind of thinking. It involves telling a story, and while facts are essential in telling a story, they are not enough.
The art of history lies in combining fact and interpretation to tell a story about the past. As time passes, legends and outright lies creep into history. Historians try to distinguish between the true and the false. But in the study of history, "truth" is complicated, contradictory, and usually obscure.
Whatever its subject, the study of history is an unending detective story. Historians try to solve mysteries in the evidence and to tell a story that will give order to the confusion of data we inherit from the past. Historians make connections, assign causes, trace defects, make comparisons, uncover patterns, locate dead ends, and find influences that continue though the generations until the present.
History is far more than an assembly of facts. It is the interpretation of facts that raise questions, provokes curiosity, and makes us ask the questions who, what, where, when, and why. The interpretation adds up to what we call a THESIS, a point of view that binds everything together.