National History Day

Guide to help area students find resources in DeWitt Library for their National History Day projects.

New York Times Archives

The New York Times TimesMachine is an excellent resource to see how events were reported on as they happened.  It can be a little tricky to use, though.  Some tips:

  1. Limit your search by dates.
  2. Arrange from oldest to newest to see how stories develop.
  3. Use the PDF option on the left side of the screen to save articles for later.  

Other Publications

Evaluating Websites

AUTHOR

  • Who is the author of this site or page?
  • What are his / her credentials (occupation, position, education, years of experience)?
  • Is the author an expert on this topic?

AFFILIATION

  • What institution or organization supports this information?
  • What is the viewpoint or bias of this group?

AGENDA

  • What is the purpose of this site?  Why was it put on the web?
  • What opinions are expressed by the author?

ACCURACY

  • When was the site last updated?
  • Are statistics and other facts correctly cited?
  • How does this information compare with other sources?

Some Suggestions for Websites

Look for websites by government organizations, libraries, and universities; many of them provide excellent digital collections.  Make sure you analyze the site closely and think critically about what it's presenting.

Digitized Books

Primary documents, especially older written material, can be found on both Hathi Trust and Internet Archives. If you a researching a topic or a particular person, occasionally material that they wrote can be found on either on of these two sites. Try going to advanced search and switch the search to author.