I remember when I used to view historical research as something terrifying, ungraspable, and beyond my abilities. When I was in school having to write history research papers, I experienced what I think all of us experience in history class at one point: sheer terror. Writing a history research paper was tough for me. Although I was a smart kid, I had very little sense of organization. Our teacher never really gave us a firm description of the structure of essays, and so we were on our own to gather the material together and organize it in a coherent way. I think we actually had a pretty difficult history class, with insufficient teacher guidance. If there was one thing that I had never imagined I would become when I grew up, it was a historical researcher.
I didn't really understand that historical research could be fun until near the end of high school. It was actually the Internet that showed me. I can't remember what I was looking up, but it was one of those web searches that we all know so well: one thing led to another, and soon I was immersed in researching some obscure heretical movement from the Middle Ages. It had started out as part of a paper, I think, but my data collection research is had gotten so out of hand that I was way off topic. Nevertheless, I was loving it. I had never realized that historical research could be like that. It was like putting together a magnificent puzzle with every step leading somewhere new. I have loved history ever since.
Say what you want about the Internet, but I think it has done wonderful things for education. It may not be the best tool in the world for younger students, but for older ones, it is a spectacular resource. When you are first learning to do historical research papers, you should learn to do them in the library, but once you learn how to do that you should be let loose on the Internet. It is amazing what you can find. I constantly marvel at the amount of power that is available at our fingertips. Organizations like the Library of Congress, LEXIS-NEXIS, Wikipedia, and many others make research history – from ancient times all the way through yesterday – available at the touch of a button. Nothing is more amazing than having that kind of access to information.
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