History & Social Studies

Britannica School Edition Learning Zone (ages 4-7) or Elementary School: Offers age-appropriate encyclopedias and related materials for students. 

eBooks Minnesota History Collection: Kid-friendly eBooks curated by state librarians. Can be read in a browser or in the MackinVIA app. 

Explora Kids: Contains elementary school-appropriate magazines, encyclopedias, dictionaries, and images.

PebbleGo Next: States and American Indian Studies: Offers key reading supports to grades 3-6, such as read-along audio and word-by-word highlighting along with a variety of downloadable questions, including prompts to inspire critical thinking.

Biography in Context: Biographical information on people throughout history, around the world and across all disciplines and subject areas.

Britannica Original Sources: A compilation of more than 420,000 primary source documents, complete books, and authentic images across a variety of subject areas. Includes close reading strategies for connecting with historical texts and primary source documents.

Britannica School Edition for Middle School or High School: Offers encyclopedias and related materials for students.

eBooks Minnesota History Collection: eBooks on important historical events, curated by state librarians. For best experience, read in a browser or the MackinVIA app. 

Explora Teens: Contains middle and high school-appropriate magazine, journal, and encyclopedia articles and also includes primary source documents, reference books, and multimedia.

Gale in Context: Middle School: A resource designed specifically for students in grades 6 to 8, covering topics in literature, science, social studies, and U.S. and world history, as well as the social issues most relevant to middle schoolers.

Gale in Context: High School: Designed for both homework and in-depth research assignments. Contains reference works, biographies, essays, overviews, primary works, images and periodical articles on all core subjects, from science to literature to history.

Issues and Controversies: Presents carefully researched essays written to give students a thorough review of all sides of a topical issue or controversy in today's news.

Points of View Reference Center: Includes a series of essays, journal articles, primary sources and reference books that present multiple sides of a current issue.

Help with your History Day project is only a click away at your library. There are many free resources on the library website which you can access from home. You can also ask your library staff for personalized help.

Getting Started

History Day Site: Resources collected by the MN Digital Library. Provides information on getting started with History Day, including developing a topic and organizing your research efforts. 

Background Information & General Resources

• American Decades Primary Sources (1900s) and American Decades (2000-2010): Main issues, themes, movements, and events by each decade. 
• Britannica School Edition for Middle School or High School: Find background information on your topic in these encyclopedias.
  
• Biography in Context: Biographical information on people throughout history, around the world, and across all disciplines and subject areas.
• Great Events from History - the 20th Century 1971-2000: Shorter essays on the events that shaped the course of the history of the world.
• Salem Press History: Electronic versions of print books all about American history.
  
• Student Resources in Context: Most topics will have their own page with a Primary Resources link. 

Books & eBooks

• eBooks Minnesota History Day Collection: Kid-friendly history titles that can be read in a browser. For best experience, download the MackinVIA app. 
• Scott County Library Catalog: Use our catalog site to search for books related to your topic. Sign in with your library card and PIN number to request books be sent to your home library. 
• MNLINK: Can't find what you need at Scott County Library? Request books from libraries all over Minnesota with your SCL card. 

Historical Newspaper Articles

• Chronicling America - Historic American Newspapers: Searchable text of select American newspapers from 1836-1922, including several from Minnesota. 
• Historical New York Times: Complete back issues (including images) from the first issue in 1851 through 2010. 
• MasterFile Complete: Full text magazines, images, primary source documents, and reference books.
• ProQuest Newsstand: Need newspaper articles from other areas of the United States? This resource lets you search for full-text articles from hundreds of newspapers. 

Pictures, Letters, & Other Primary Source Documents

• Digital Public Library of America (DPLA): Search hundreds of digital library collections from all over the United States for images, documents, archives, manuscripts, books, and more.
• As always, check copyright information before taking an image for your project and don't forget to add images to your bibliography.