History Research

This is designed to aid students in completing research for their World and US History classes. This should be used as a starting point. Mrs. Tignor will schedule research appointments with each student to give more specific guidance. Students will leave the appointment with personalized suggestions for continuing their research.

School Subscribed Databases:

• SIRS Knowledge Source

• WorldBook Online

• Gale

Free Primary Source Databases:

• Library of Congress- Documents, letters, newspaper articles, photos, etc. related to US History. Some World History topics are covered if they are connected to the US. For example, US involvement in World War II.

• National Archives

• Spartacus Educational

• Fordham University

• The Avalon Project

• LIFE and Google Images

• TeachingHistory.org

• American Archive of Public Broadcasting- Audio and video recordings of news reports from all over the United States.

• World Digital Library

• Ancient World Digital Library

• HathiTrust

• British Pathé- Considered to be the finest newsreel archive in the world and is a treasure trove of 85,000 films unrivalled in their historical and cultural significance.

• Collections Search Center: Smithsonian Institute.

• OAIster: WorldCat.

Who We AreSpanning the years from 1896 to 1978, the collection includes footage from around the globe of major events, famous faces, fashion trends, travel, science and culture.

Print Resources:

Often we gravitate towards web resources for convenience, but books are usually written by experts in their field that are immersed in the topic. Often, a book can offer you a larger amount of information in one place. The Library at SHHS includes over 5,000 print resources. See Mrs. Tignor for help in finding books on your topic.

Relevant Organizations:

Sometimes you can find nonprofit organizations with the goal of protecting and preserving historical documents. Use your search terms to find organizations for large amounts of relevant information.

Interviews:

People can be valuable sources of information. For some topics, you can schedule phone or video interviews. To find a source for an interview, you would need to find a specific person that is an expert on your topic. You would need to find contact information (phone number or email address). Then, we would need to contact the person and set up a time to schedule an interview.

Search Terms and Keywords:

During your research appointment, you and Mrs. Tignor will generate a list of appropriate search terms for your topic. As you complete your research, you may need to add to your search terms to be able to gather more specific information.