HIST 390-002: The Digital Past

• WorldCat — a catalog of catalogs. Great place to find books on your topic. I’m pro-web and pro-multimedia, but you’d be foolish to ignore books as a source of information.
• Mason Interlibrary Loan — use this to request books and articles not available at Mason. They will be delivered to the library.
• Zotero — don’t forget to manage your research with software: Zotero is one of the best pieces of bibliographic software, and it was built right here at Mason.
• Mason librarians — librarians are *the* best people to help you find information. That’s their job. You can schedule an appointment with a subject librarian or email or IM them for help.

• Creative Commons search
• Wikimedia Commons
• Flickr Commons
• Flickr Advanced Search
• Google Images Advanced Search
• Internet Archive Advanced Search

For search help, see also http://support.google.com/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=136861

Here are some (most) of the research questions you’re planning to explore this semester. Which of these will make good research questions? Which won’t?

1. When was West Coast Offense developed in the NFL? How did that affect the play of the San Francisco 49ers?
2. What is the tradition behind the marine corps parade in Washington DC?
3. How does access to universal healthcare/free high-quality education affect intrastate violence?
4. What is the history behind the Black Sox scandal of 1919?
5. How did bootlegging develop during the prohibition?
6. What were the legacies President Franklin Roosevelt left after his death?
7. What factors have contributed to the significant rise in data requirements across the web in the past 10 years?
8. How did the breakout of MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) impact the world at large and is that impact still holding true today?
9. How did the introduction of articles about MMORPGs impact the games themselves?
10. MMORPGs soared with the introduction of World of Warcraft, but there were many MMOs that preceded WoW; How did those games help to shape WoW and MMORPGs themselves?
11. What was the initial purpose of YouTube as a website? How has it changed over the years?
12. What led to Prohibition and what factored into its end?
13. Why was the United Fruit Company’s interference in the Guatemalan government so devastating to the country?
14. What was it that made the practitioners of Alchemy and Astrology different from their folk magic counterparts?
15. Guatemalan History paying special attention the United Fruits Company’s involvement in the 1950′s
16. Immigration to the US from Latin America and the Caribbean
17. African-American migration across the US during the great migration
18. How has the historical use of US Foreign Aid prevented development throughout developing countries?
19. what were the cultural effects of ‘talking picture’ films?
20. how do cults in american correspond with society?
21. what were the defining cultural aspects of the 1920′s?
22. the extinction of the Algonquian language in Virginia — specifically when the Algonquin language began to die out….I would like to look into the causes of the language’s demise and the current revitalization process.
23. “Ways in Which Hacker Technology has Influenced the Web” or something. I want to look at, specifically, hackers when they got jobs for tech companies, creating more efficient securities based on their experience, or other programs for public use on “hacker ideals.” Many companies today have hired former hackers to work on their software, so I want to see the influence and development of new technologies.
24. How did the invention of the Ipad impact everyday life?
25. Why was Wayne Gretzky so important?
26. Over the years, how did Volkswagen [sic] secure international success?
27. Is the American-government-endoursed definition of a healthy/balanced diet based more heavily on science or on commercial merketing campaigns?
28. The Practicioners of Folk-Magic and Their Relationship with Early Medieval Society
29. The Scientific Magi: the Intellectual Students of Alchemy and Astrology
30. Post-Reformation Mania and Fear of Occultism.