National History Day: Research Resources

The 2024–2025 theme for National History Day is “Rights & Responsibilities in History.” 

Every year, students in surrounding school districts visit MCPL locations for help researching their chosen topics.

Library staff are always ready to help you with your research! If you can’t make it to the library, you may call the Reference Desk at 715-261-7230, email us or chat with us online.

Accessing MCPL’s online resources:

1. Go to www.mcpl.us .
2. Select “Resources” from the main menu.
3. Choose a database. For history research, try the following:
   • EBSCO All Databases: Multiple databases of magazines, newspapers, images and more.
   • Explora for Middle & High School Students: Online encyclopedia articles, magazine articles, videos and websites.
   • History Reference Source: The world’s most comprehensive full text history references books, encyclopedias, and non-fiction books, plus articles from history periodicals.
   • Advanced Placement Source: This is a source for journals and articles that are suitable for use by AP or IB students.
   • GreenFILE: All aspects of the human impact on the environment.
   • Points of View Reference Source: Resources presenting multiple sides of an issue to help assess and develop persuasive arguments and essays, better understand controversial issues, and develop analytical thinking skills.

Other Valuable Websites for History Research

• Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov
• Library of Congress Digital Collections: https://www.loc.gov/collections
• National Archives: https://www.archives.gov
• National Parks Service : https://www.nps.gov 
• Smithsonian: https://si.edu
• Yale Avalon Project (Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy): https://avalon.law.yale.edu
• Internet Archive: https://archive.org
• Wisconsin Historical Society: https://www.wisconsinhistory.org
• Recollection Wisconsin: https://recollectionwisconsin.org
• Digital Public Library of America: https://dp.la
• World Digital Library: https://www.loc.gov/collections/world-digital-library
• Canadian History: https://canadashistory.ca
• National Security Archive: https://nsarchive.gwu.edu
• The Vietnam Center & Archive (includes Oral Histories): https://www.vietnam.ttu.edu
• Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History: https://www.gilderlehrman.org/collection/gilder-lehrman-collection
• University of Wisconsin Digital Collections: https://search.library.wisc.edu/search/digital/browse
• EUDocs: https://eudocs.lib.byu.edu
• AMDocs: https://teachingamericanhistory.org/documents
• Internet History Sourcebooks Project: https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu
• Hathi Trust: https://www.hathitrust.org
• Project on Government Secrecy Library: https://sgp.fas.org/library/index.html
• Oral History Association (some links may no longer work; list is archival): https://oralhistory.org/centers-and-collections
• University of Washington Research Guides: https://guides.lib.uw.edu/c.php?g=341415&p=2626825