Conspiracies!
The Illuminati
Loch Ness Monster
Roswell and Area 51
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
Apollo 11 Moon Landing
Dungeons & Dragons and Satanism
Chemtrails
Resources for Digital Storytelling Research
Primary Sources
- Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new windowGale Artemis: Primary Sources features multiple collections. Collections to search that will be most useful for researching conspiracies are those in Contemporary Studies (such as U.S. Declassified Documents Online), Legal Studies (such as U.S. Supreme Court Records & Briefs), and Newspapers and Periodicals (such as the Sunday Times Historical Archives).
- CQ Historic Documents This link opens in a new windowHistoric Documents Series Online Edition collects more than 2,500 primary sources covering current events around the world from 1972 to present. Each source document is preceded by an introductory essay giving context to the source. You can search by keyword, or browse by topic or date.
- World History in Video (North America) This link opens in a new windowStreaming video of selected documentaries from PBS, the BBC, and other educational filmakers covering human history from the earliest civilizations to the late twentieth century. Transcripts are fully searchable and synchronized to the video. Video clips can be selected to create customized playlists that can be annotated, copied, and shared.
- American History in Video (North America) This link opens in a new windowOver a thousand hours of archival and documentary films of historical interest including content from the History Channel, PBS, the U.S. Government and other educational media sources. Video clips can be selected to create customized playlists that can be annotated, copied, and shared.
Secondary Sources
- LionSearch This link opens in a new windowAn integrated search of all materials owned and subscribed to by Penn State University Libraries including books, e-books, research articles, newspaper articles, and other publications.
Starting your research here will help you gauge the type of information available on your topic. - Catalog (Penn State University Libraries catalog) This link opens in a new windowThe online catalog of materials owned by Penn State University Libraries.
Includes books, ebooks, videos, periodicals, maps, music, digitized works, microfilm titles, and other formats that are in the University Libraries' collections.
Note: you will not find articles from newspapers, magazines, or journals in the library catalog.
The Encyclopedia of Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theories by Publication Date: 2005Does the CIA covertly utilize "mind control" drugs and techniques? Are satanic messages subliminally hidden in popular music? Does your vote really count or is the U.S. president chosen by secretive societies such as the Illuminati? This reference provides more than 500 detailed entries that define the major conspiracies, both proven and unproven, throughout history. Entries include biographies, specific events, profiles of groups, and thumbnail histories of notorious nations.
Conspiracy Encyclopedia by Publication Date: 2005Categorized into specific areas of interest, this book is an essential guide to the many and varied theories that question the status quo and redefine the official version or events past. With detailed entries to help answer all the right questions, this book also includes numerous alternate perspectives covering wars and state legislation, as well as biographies of the key figures.
Conspiracy Theories and the People Who Believe Them by Publication Date: 2018In this book, Uscinski has gathered forty top researchers on the topic to provide both the foundational tools and the evidence to better understand conspiracy theories in the United States and around the world. Combining systematic analysis and cutting-edge empirical research,this volume will help us better understand an extremely important, yet relatively neglected, phenomenon.
The 70 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time by Publication Date: 2000Examines conspiracies ranging from the death of Marilyn Monroe and the cover-up of a UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico to the Oklahoma City bombing.
- Historical Abstracts with Full Text This link opens in a new windowSearch for articles and other publications on world history from 1450 to present, (except for the United States and Canada which are indexed in the companion work, America: History and Life). The database includes articles in journals worldwide. Also included are references to dissertations and books.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowJSTOR provides a trusted archive of important scholarly journals and a selection of scholarly books. Content in JSTOR spans many disciplines, primarily in the humanities and social sciences.
- America: History & Life with Full Text This link opens in a new windowSearch for scholarly articles on all aspects of the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Articles from national, state and local historical journals are covered, as well as historical articles in major humanities and social science journals.
Multimedia Sources and Copyright
- Multimedia Creation Sources GuideePenn State University Libraries' guide for finding media resources for your multimedia project including public domain image and video repositories. Direction on applying copyright, fair use, and creative commons' licenses is also included.
- Copyright and Fair UseExplains Section 107 of the Copyright Act, known as the "Fair Use" clause, with analysis and examples of the four factors, from the Penn State University Libraries' Office of Copyright and Scholarly Communications.
- Fair Use Analysis ChecklistChecklist of fair use attributes that is helpful for determining if and how a work can be used in your project, from the Penn State University Libraries' Office of Copyright and Scholarly Communications.
- Creative Commons LicensesDescribes the four principles of Creative Commons licenses so you can determine how to use a work in your project, from the Penn State University Libraries' Office of Copyright and Scholarly Communications.