DCE History Day Research @ UWSP

Making a connection to the UWSP Library

Hi - my name is Terri Muraski and I'm a librarian at UWSP.  I've teamed up with your teachers to establish a connection to the UWSP library to help you with research on your National History Day topics, focusing on this years theme Exploration, Encounter, and Exchange in History. 

The first step is to get you acquainted with a few of our search tools, most importantly, our catalog.  The catalog is our gateway to nearly everything in our building, and many online resources especially from the US government. 

I've put together a NHD research guide for you that should help you get started.  There's a link to our catalog on the page - but before you start searching, it might help to go through the powerpoint presentation that I've provided on the guide and in the next post.  If you want to just dive in, you can always come back to the presentation if you have trouble.  In addition, the guide includes links to many other NHD resources and to many important history websites.

Contacting me via the blog

If you having trouble with your searching, or if your topic is one that your teachers believe will probably be a little hard to find, feel free to contact me for help.  We have a large reference collection that can be great for information on many topics.  We also have many history databases that are not available on Badgerlink.  I can do some searching and send you information that I find. 

Just be sure to provide your email and a detailed description of your topic.  You can just respond to this post or email me directly at tmuraski@uwsp.edu

Badgerlink!

Don't forget about Badgerlink!  You can find it on the DCE IMC page and on my NHD Research Guide.

The address is easy to remember http://www.badgerlink.net/

Be sure to check out the History Reference Center. It includes:

Content includes:

• Nearly 57,000 historical documents
• More than 79,000 biographies of historical figures
• More than 1,990 full-text reference books, encyclopedias and non-fiction books
• More than 37,000 historical photos & maps
• More than 80 hours of historical video

A few highlights

Three highlights of our resources that are often great for NHD projects:

• New York Times - we have access to the paper back to 1858.  Remember that the newspaper articles covering an event at the time of the event are primary resources!
• US Documents - this might be especially important for this year's theme, since our large collection of US publications will contain many documents that demonstrate the result of diplomatic negotiations.  Find these in the library catalog.
• Archives and Area Research Center program - Wisconsin has a unique research program that permits lending archival material (even from the Wisconsin Historical Society) between libraries.  So, if you find materials in Madison or at one of the other archives around the state, contact our archivist and ask her about having them shipped to our library at UWSP. 

History Websites

Be sure to check out the History websites on the Library Guide.  My personal favorite is American Memory from the Library of Congress.

Just click on the Websites tab at the top of the UWSP History Day Library Guide