Learn to Love History!

If you google the phrase “Doing History” you will come across several blogs, websites, and articles d iscussing the importance of taking part in the historical process. The building blocks of the historical process include understanding what primary sources are, how to find and study them, as well as how to critically analyze and interpret a variety of historical records. Secondary sources also play a role in the historical process. Historians create secondary sources when they write history articles or books on a historical topic.  Understanding how to use both primary and secondary sources is important, however it is also essential that history students learn a variety of ways to approach thinking about history. Studying the objects and artifacts of past civilizations helps us place people and events in historical context. Determining chronological sequences also helps historians figure out what decisions may have led to later events. Another concept that is harder to grasp, but j

 Chronicling America The Library of Congress has a popular digital collection of digitized newspapers between 1777 and 1963 available online at  https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ . Researchers can search and browse the newspapers online. The newspapers articles are also free to download or print. There is also a separate US Newspaper Directory, 1690-Present , that contains listings and library locations for over 100,000 newspaper titles. However, for viewing the newspapers online, the digitized newspaper collection is the place to start. After clicking on the tab for the digitized newspapers, researchers can then search by state, ethnicity, and/or language. For the most avid researchers, it is also possible to download the complete list of digitized newspapers. 

JSTOR, one of the favorite electronic journals of historians for finding full-text articles, has open-access content that does not require a subscription. To search and view the open content visit https://about.jstor.org/whats-in-jstor/books/open-access-books-jstor/ for books and https://www.jstor.org/open/ for everything else. Educators will want to check the results first and decide what resources to share with their students. While the majority of the articles and books are college level, the sources consist of several peer reviewed articles and books with credible and factual information. The database itself, in addition to the open content, is a great discussion point for history educators. Acknowledging the information needs of history students and recognizing the desire for full-text articles helps students learn about one of the major resources used in graduate level research. While I have personally used this database quite often in my own research, I

Are you a person who does not like to ask for directions? Do you need a history g.p.s. device to help you find your way through history? It is okay to admit when you need advice or directions. To help you I have put together the following list if you get lost along the way. How to find your closest library: https://www.worldcat.org/librarie The Top 7 alternatives to Wikipedia: https://oedb.org/ilibrarian/top-7-alternatives-to-wikipedia/ (from Open Education Database) Free Online Textbooks: http://www.ushistory.org/textbooks.htm Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ Open Yale Courses (History): https://oyc.yale.edu/history Free Online Courses in American History from edX: https://www.edx.org/learn/us-history MIT Open Courseware: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/history/ History for Kids: http://www.historyforkids.net/ InfoBase: https://online.infobase.com/HRC/Browse/Product/3 History Quiz-See if you are on the right path: https://www.constitutionfacts.com/us-constituti

Are you familiar with choose your own adventure books? In these books the reader is able to make choices at the end of each section that determine what stories they will follow and each path has a different ending. In a similar way, research is like choose your own adventure books. While research projects usually do not appear as fun as fiction books, research can take you on an adventure as well. Whether it is back through time with a historical topic, or into the future with science and technology, research can lead you in numerous directions. Depending on your approach, interests, and sources you choose to select, you will find yourself on a unique quest for answers. Here is a quick choose your own adventure research project for you! Please let me know if you enjoyed the project. If you found this project useful and worthwhile, please share with your friends and colleagues.   Question: What did Ancient Egyptians eat for breakfast? Option 1: Visit https://www.hist

What does intuitive research mean? The idea behind intuitive research is teaching good research habits that build good instincts and patterns for researchers. Experienced researchers understand the various steps of the research process, but have internalized them after countless hours of research to the point where they do not have to check a set of directions to know where to look or how to proceed. This ability is particularly useful for research topics that require a lot of creative research techniques and outside the box thinking. It is also helpful for researchers when reaching hurdles or roadblocks during the research process. Intuitive researchers can glance at a possible source and tell within a few minutes whether the source is useful or not for their research purposes. Choosing to add a source to your resource list is not the same as critically analyzing a source. However, both steps are part of research. Gathering resources and recognizing unusual sources of information for

Tips for Engaging New Researchers 1. Interview Your Researchers:  To learn what interests your new researchers, start by asking questions that highlight specific research interests, personal experiences, and favorite hobbies. Learning about a researcher's goals, interests, and experiences will help cultivate curiosities that inspire great research questions. 2. Investigate Various Platforms for Resources: Both new and seasoned researchers have strong opinions about how they prefer searching for information. While finding credible and reliable resources is always important for good research, it is important to keep an open mind about the best methods for finding resources. Videos have traditionally gotten a negative reputation from the academic community, but many people today gather information through videos, social media, and other digital platforms. Electronic resources and databases are also great resources for locating scholarly articles. A willingness to conside