Deeper Research and Evaluating Online Sources

1. Deeper Research and Evaluating Online Sources

2. You have a good narrow, theme-related, fascinating, and truly historical topic – now what? Remember the NHD evaluation criteria for historical quality!

3. NHD Evaluation Criteria for Historical Quality • Entry is historically accurate • Shows analysis and interpretation • Places topic in historical context • Shows wide research • Uses available primary sources • Research is balanced

4. Research to place topic in its historical context • You need GOOD secondary sources to provide the historical context…..BOOKS are usually the best secondary sources – these might be general textbooks or more specialized works (for example, a book about the West for a project on an Indian Treaty) • Consider questions such as: • Time and place – Where and when? • Political context – Who holds power? What are important related political issues? • Social-economic context – How is society divided and what are some important social and economic issues? What is the general state of the economy at the time of your topic? • Cultural context – What cultural trends were important at the time of your topic? • Very concise answers to some of the above questions should be worked into your project to provide background for your readers/viewers

5. About online research • Balanced historical research includes both primary and secondary sources • Online digital repositories such as the Avalon Project or the Library of Congress’ American Memory Project are excellent sources of primary historical documents and images • BOOKS and peer-reviewed journals are the best secondary sources because they have been evaluated by experts • For online secondary sources, start with the library databases before you turn to a general search engine such as Google • Think critically when evaluating websites for use in a historical research project; use only reliable sources • If you cannot identify the AUTHOR of a website and verify his/her authoritative credentials for your bibliography annotation, do not use the material UNLESS it is a website produced by a government agency, major museum, university department, or other well-known organization • Websites devoted to a particular topic are almost ALWAYS secondary sources – you might find primary material there, but the website itself is the source rather than the primary material

6. Library Databases • Elementary School Library Databases http://www.dodea.edu/curriculum/infoCenters.cfm?cId=es • Middle School Library Databases http://www.dodea.edu/curriculum/infoCenters.cfm?cId=ms • High School Library Databases http://www.dodea.edu/curriculum/infoCenters.cfm?cId=hs See your school Information Specialist for usernames and passwords.

7. Example: Gale Resources (MS) • You can search all three Gale databases at once • Limit your search to full-text documents • The search term “Treaty of Ghent” yields 18 results • Some of the search results will help you find more sources • Example: after reading about Gallatin’s role in negotiating the Treaty, you might want to do more research on Gallatin

8. Example of Good Online Research Using a Search EngineGoogle search term: “Treaty of Ghent” Wikipedia should NEVER appear in your bibliography, but… Looks good… URL is blocked at school – it is probably a blog by an amateur historian…probably not worth going back to at home. Let’s take a look… A quick click won’t hurt… No, no, and no! Avoid tertiary sources like these (also About.com) and do your own research. If you have a good topic, there will be real sources! The “dot com” domain is an indicator that we should evaluate content carefully (that is also true of “dot org”)…

9. One more online source to avoid: • Thinkquest.org • Thinkquest publishes projects that showcase the work of kindergarten through twelfth grade students. • The students have probably done their best work, but they are not the recognized experts you should be consulting in your research!

10. Visits, Interviews, and Email • If there is a museum or historic site nearby that relates to your topic, try to visit! Gather brochures, take photos, and inquire in advance about interviewing an expert. • Interviews: prepare with focused questions to help connect the topic to the theme; ask permission to video or audio tape (possibly by speaker phone) • Email correspondence – look for experts by searching for authors of books you read; often they can be reached through a university history department website; do not ask for general information (after all, you are a serious researcher and should know how to find basic information on your own) but explain who you are, what you are doing, and ask a specific question or request brief feedback on your tentative conclusions; try to tie the theme into your questions and you may receive in return a quotable response from an expert that directly connects your topic to the theme

11. Treaty of Ghent - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaSigning of the Treaty of Ghent. Plaquette at the building in the Veldstraat, Ghent where the treaty was negotiated. The Treaty of Ghent (8 Stat. ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Ghent - Im Cache - ÄhnlicheSeiten The References at the end of the Wikipedia article contain links to some possible reliable sources (Items 3, 4, and 5 below). References The War of 1812: Treaty of Ghent 2. W.G. Dean et al. (1998). Concise Historical Atlas of Canada.  Lindsay, Arnett G. "Diplomatic Relations Between the United States and Great Britain Bearing on the Return of Negro Slaves, 1783-1828." Journal of Negro History. 5:4 (October 1920); Knight, Charles. The Crown History of England. Oxford, England: Oxford University, 1870. Avalon Project – British-American Diplomacy – Treaty of Ghent "Chapter 6: THE WAR OF 1812". April 27, 2001. http://www.history.army.mil/books/amh/AMH-06.htm. Retrieved 2010-06-14. 

12. Clicking on the “treaty signing” image will take you to the file history, which will let you track down the image from a reliable source to cite in your bibliography. Note: the link http://www.navy.gc.ca/project_pride/photo_archive/ in the image history is not valid, but try some smart searching! Entering the painting title “A Hundred Years Peace. The Signature of the Treaty of Ghent between Great Britain and the United States of America, Dec. 24th 1814. Painting by A. Forestier” in Google leads to this valid link for the Canadian Naval Archive item: http://www.navy.gc.ca/project_pride/photo_archive/photo_archive_description_page_e.asp?ImgNegNum=C-115678 Also note: it is a secondary source, painted some 100 years after the signing of the Treaty – but the title of the painting should help you identify an important consequence of the Treaty!

13. It is good! If you use the image or transcribed text of the Treaty of Ghent, cite it as a primary source available in the Our Documents Project of the National Archives and Records Administration (include access URL in citation).

14. At first glance, this appears to be a commercial site by an unidentified author. However, it seems to have some good material, so it deserves further investigation…. None of the links lead to an author…. but they do lead to useful images and documents, plus information from a variety of perspectives! This website really does seem promising – but who wrote it?

15. If links on a page do not take you to a home or “about us” page, try removing parts from the end of the URL: From http://www.galafilm.com/1812/e/events/ghent.html to http://www.galafilm.com/1812/e/events/ takes us here Good information, but not what we need yet… Next, try http://www.galafilm.com/1812/e/ Here we learn that the website was produced to accompany an award-winning 4-part Canadian history documentary on the War of 1812. With this information, you can be reasonably confident that the material was prepared by experts on the topic – yes, this is a good source, but remember, the WEBSITE is the source, and it is a secondary source. With sources like this, do be sure to explain in the bib annotation how you know it is reliable.

16. …but in this case, the quick click leads to a dead end. The authors of this site are primarily interested in attracting “hits” for their advertisers. Anonymous commercial sites like this are unreliable….the maps might be a useable resource, but look for them in reliable websites or digital archives.

17. The flag logo and use of the phrase “Constitutional Foundations” make this look like a government website, but keep the “dot com” domain in mind….. Followers of politics will recognize the names of the Opinion and Analysis contributors, all of whom represent a partisan political ideology. Remember that good historical research is balanced, not one-sided. Clicking on the “About Us” link confirms that this site is not authored by professional historians: Historical documents in this site are also available from credible sources such as National Archives digital collection, and that is a better place to look for them.