Research Tools

History Reference Center
Offers full text from more than 2,500 reference books, encyclopedias and non-fiction books, cover to cover full text for nearly 170 leading history periodicals, more than 112,000 historical documents, 113,000 biographies of historical figures, more than 112,000 historical photos and maps, and more than 80 hours of historical video.
This resource is made available to you as part of BadgerLink, which is a project of the Department of Public Instruction’s Division for Libraries, Technology, and Community Learning for the citizens of Wisconsin.  Funding is provided through the Public Service Commission Universal Service Fund.

MasterFILE Premier
Designed specifically for public libraries, this multidisciplinary database provides full text for nearly 1,750 general reference publications with full text information dating as far back as 1975. Covering virtually every subject area of general interest, MasterFILE Premier also contains full text for nearly 500 reference books and 164,424 primary source documents, as well as an Image Collection of 440,207 photos, maps & flags.
This resource is made available to you as part of BadgerLink, which is a project of the Department of Public Instruction’s Division for Libraries, Technology, and Community Learning for the citizens of Wisconsin.  Funding is provided through the Public Service Commission Universal Service Fund.

Student Research Center
Designed especially for youth in grades 6-12, Student Research Center makes it easy for students to search by keyword or by topic to find the most useful search results.
Help available for this resource: online tutorial, usage tips: or sign up for training
This resource is made available to you as part of BadgerLink, which is a project of the Department of Public Instruction’s Division for Libraries, Technology, and Community Learning for the citizens of Wisconsin.  Funding is provided through the Public Service Commission Universal Service Fund.

Recommended Websites

National History Day
Resources for teachers, students and parents; information on the latest theme, competition, and past winners.

National Register of Historic Places
Over 78,000 historically important cultural places, including almost 3,000 National Historical Landmarks.

Smithsonian
American social and cultural history, an online photography exhibit, and the current museum exhibits.

University of Wisconsin Digital Collections
Unique historical and cultural collections of digitized letters, diaries, reminiscences, speeches, photographs, oral history tapes, manuscripts and maps.

Wisconsin Heritage Online
Wisconsin Heritage Online is a collaborative, statewide digital resource for teachers, students, genealogists, history buffs. Anyone who values our state and its wealth of historical and cultural resources will find interesting or useful material.

Wisconsin Historical Society
Includes Wisconsin history, current museum exhibits, and historic Wisconsin places.

Wisconsin Local History & Biography Articles
Find thousands of historical newspaper articles on Wisconsin people and communities.