Another thing to consider: your university might want you to start a blog about their library, for any number of reasons: projecting an intellectual image, encouraging students to be interested in their resources, increasing web presence... I'd pitch this to your boss as an official project! You can check out some top university library sites to see how they 'market' their rare books online. More.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.