History Day Competition at Ramona

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History Day Competition at Ramona
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Research the beginning.

• You need to look at many sources before you
  design your project.
• Books, Internet, databases, periodicals
• You need to find both primary and secondary
  sources.

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What do I need?

• You need to find both primary and secondary
  sources.
• Your research should be balanced, considering the
  viewpoints of all relevant groups. That means
  losers as well as winners, males and females,
  different nations, different socioeconomic/ethnic/
  religious groups, etc.
• What balanced means will vary depending on your
  topic.

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Secondary Sources

• Secondary sources help you to put your topic in
  context, that is, to see how your topic relates
  to the big picture and to understand its
  long-term causes and consequences.
• A secondary source is a book or article written
  by an author who is not an eyewitness or a
  participant in the historical event or period.
• For example, high school history textbooks and
  other history books about a particular topic are
  secondary sources.
• So are biographies and reference books, such as
  encyclopedias.

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Primary Sources

• Primary sources help you develop your own
  interpretation and make your project lively and
  personal.
• Primary sources are material written or produced
  in the time period students are investigating
  materials created by people who were there.
• A letter written by President Lincoln in 1862 is
  a primary source for a student researching the
  Civil War era.
• The memories of a person who was part of an event
  also can serve as a primary source, even if you
  conduct an oral history interview with the person
  in 2009.
• Letters, journals, photographs, clothing,
  artifacts, etc. are all primary sources.

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Reference Books

• Use reference books for general information.
• General encyclopedias such as World Book can
  provide you with basic information, while subject
  encyclopedias, such as the Encyclopedia of
  Slavery, provide a bit more detailed information.
  
• Encyclopedia articles often have bibliographies
  which can direct you to some of the major
  secondary sources for a topic.
• Biographical dictionaries are compilations of
  biographies of people selected because of their
  fame, accomplishments, membership in a particular
  group, or some other distinguishing
  characteristic.
• Examples include the Dictionary of American
  Biography or Notable American Women.
• Each person's entry is a succinct summary of his
  or her life, often written by an expert.
• Atlases are compilations of maps. Maps created at
  the time of an event-such as battlefield maps
  created at the time of a battle-are primary
  sources, but maps created later, such as those
  tracing the migrations of Indian tribes, are
  secondary sources.

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Biographies

• A biography is a book written about a persons
  life by someone who studied his or her life.
• An autobiography is a book written by the person
  about his or her own life.
• We have over 2,000 biographies at our library.

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Books on historical topics

• History books are found in the 900s section of
  the library.
• Look in the Destiny Catalog for the topic of your
  choice and use the call number listed to find the
  books.
• We have books that are both primary and secondary
  sources.

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Periodicals

• Professional journal, magazine, or newspaper,
  published quarterly, monthly, weekly, or daily.

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Finding a periodical

• Go to the Readers Guide to Periodical Literature
  (the big green books).
• Decide on a year to begin. Our magazines start
  in the 1950s.
• Look for subject alphabetically.
• When you find an article, look at the library
  list of periodicals to see if we have the
  periodical, and ask Mrs. Akers-Grant or Mr. Call
  for help.

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Database At Home Log-in Screen

• For username and password, come to the library.
• This is how you log on at home.
• http//search.ebscohost.com

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Database Menu

• Select the database you want to begin your
  search.
• Each one will bring you different results.

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Searching the History Database
Type in key words to begin a search, or customize
with Advanced Search.
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Advanced Search
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Search Example
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Sample HTML Article

• Hyper Text Markup Language language used to
  create documents on the web.

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Sample PDF Article
Portable Document Format
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Citation Information
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Terms to know

• Abstract An abstract is a summary of the
  article, so that you dont have to read the whole
  thing when you are searching for good articles.
• Source Originally the article you are reading
  was not on line. The source tells you the book,
  magazine, newspaper, etc. in which it was
  originally published.

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Student Research Center
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Sample Article
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Annotated Bibliography

• You must have an Annotated Bibliography.
• That means you need to use library source cards
  to collect the citation information you need.
• Every source used must be documented.