Every year, our Special Collections Center is pleased to assist middle and high school students who are researching projects for National History Day.
These projects require primary resources and a thorough understanding of the annual theme as it relates to historical persons, places, and events—and it provides an opportunity to hone our own librarian skills as well!
While some topics are beyond our scope (our local history collections unfortunately, do not include primary resources for, say, Cleopatra), we can usually offer a few primary resources—including newspapers, photographs, or speeches—through our subscription databases or provide contact information for organizations or facilities whose collections have the necessary resources.
It’s always interesting to watch students learn research skills and respect for our collective history, as they work to create displays, skits, videos, and papers that will be judged good enough to advance to the regional, state, and even national competitions.
And it’s wonderful to see the students’ pride in their work!
We would like to congratulate North Scott High School, which was named National History Day School of the Year for Iowa and applaud the twenty-two North Scott students who participated in the state competition in Des Moines. We also send our best wishes to the fourteen students who will be going on to the National competition in June.
