Course: Eng 280
Topic: Paranormal
Fall 2008 -- Dr. Kemper

Librarian: Sean Cordes
Email: cs-cordes@wiu.edu
Phone: 298-2785

Office Hours: Mon 8-10, Tue 1-2, Fri 10-11

Off-Campus Access Library Internet Resources: If you are off-campus, you will need to enter your student id # or your ecom (email) username and password. If you have problems, call the reference desk at 309-298-2700 or 800-413-6544.

Off-Campus Access Library Internet Resources: Most of the libraries' databases are proprietary (owned by third parties). As long as you are on campus, the database providers assume that you are a WIU student. If you are off-campus, the providers require proof of enrolment. If you want to access library databases off-campus, be prepared with your student id # or your ecom username and password. Call the reference desk at 309-298-2700 or 800- 413-6544.

Introduction - Why believe?

MSN Video

Possible Topics

Paranormal
Parapsychology
Bermuda Triangle
Chupacabra
Kirlian Photography
Lochness Monster
Spontaneous Human Combustion
Yeti or bigfoot or sasquatch
Ghosts or hauntings
Crop Circles

AND

Evidence
Debunking
Proof
Urban Legends

Some general database resources

Academic Search Premier, 1985- .
Academic Search Premier provides full text for more than 2,050 publications, including more than 1,500 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to the full text, indexing and abstracts are provided for all 3,476 journals in the collection. This database offers information in nearly every area of academic study.
Expanded Academic ASAP by InfoTrac, 1980- .
InfoTrac is one of the WIU Libraries’ most popular multidisciplinary database. Easy to use and a majority of the citations include full text.
 
JSTOR, Year varies by title- .
JSTOR has access to a wide variety of journal backfile issues with full text access.
Readers Guide- To Search 300 individual journals

Specific Database Resources

-Reason

-Skeptical Inquirer

-CQ Researcher Online, 1923 - single-themed 12,000-word reports (background, stats, assessment, bibliographies)

Pro/Con Pros and Cons of controversial issues.

Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center- viewpoint articles with statistics; biographies; court cases; and primary docs

ProCon.Org - Website with viewpoints on controversial issues

Paranormal Websites

-Top Paranormal sites

-Midnite Walkers

-Paranormal Research Initiative

Malpass Library Top Twenty Paranormal Book Hits  

  1. Man, myth & magic : the illustrated encyclopedia of mythology, religion and the unknown / editor in chief, Richard Cavendish ; editorial board, C.A. Burland ... [et al.].  1995  Book  Library Location: Reference - 2nd Floor, Malpass [Building use only] Call Number: REF. BF1407 .M34 1995  

  2. Harper's encyclopedia of mystical and paranormal experience / Rosemary Ellen Guiley ; foreword by Marion Zimmer Bradley.  1991  Book  Library Location: Reference - 2nd Floor, Malpass [Building use only] Call Number: REF. BF1407 .G85 1991
     
  3. Psychic animals : a fascinating investigation of paranormal behavior / Dennis Bardens.  1988  Book  Library Location: Main Collection - Malpass Library Call Number: QL785.3 .B366 1988   

  4. Pseudoscience and the paranormal : a critical examination of the evidence / Terence Hines.  1988  Book  Library Location: Main Collection - Malpass Library Call Number: BF1042 .H55 1988   

  5. Medium, the mystic, and the physicist; toward a general theory of the paranormal, by Lawrence LeShan.  1974  Book  Library Location: Main Collection - Malpass Library Call Number: BF1031 .L43 1974 

  6. Meaning of personal existence : in the light of paranormal phenomena, the doctrine of reincarnation, and mystical states of consciousness / Arthur W. Osborn ; With a foreword by Ian Stevenson.  1967  Book  Library Location: Main Collection - Malpass Library Call Number: BF1411 .O8 1967   

  7. Transcendental temptation : a critique of religion and the paranormal / Paul Kurtz.  1986  Book  Library Location: Main Collection - Malpass Library Call Number: BL2775.2 .K87 1986  

  8. Chinese ghosts and ESP : a study of paranormal beliefs and experiences / by Charles F. Emmons.  1982  Book  Library Location: Main Collection - Malpass Library Call Number: BF1472.H66 E45  

  9. Paranormal foreknowledge : problems and perplexities / Jule Eisenbud.  1982  Book  Library Location: Main Collection - Malpass Library Call Number: BF1325 .E37   

  10. Paranormal borderlands of science / edited by Kendrick Frazier.  1981  Book  Library Location: Main Collection - Malpass Library Call Number: BF1031 .P33  
     
  11. Science and the supernatural : an investigation of paranormal phenomena including psychic healing, clairvoyance, telepathy, and precognition by a distinguished physicist and mathematician / John Taylor.  1980  Book  Library Location: Main Collection - Malpass Library Call Number: BF1031 .T32 1980  
     
  12. Paranormal and the normal : a historical, philosophical, and theoretical perspective / by Morton Leeds and Gardner Murphy.  1980  Book  Library Location: Main Collection - Malpass Library Call Number: BF1031 .L39   

  13. Paranormal / Stan Gooch.  1978  Book  
    Library Location: Main Collection - Malpass Library Call Number: BF1031 .G54 1978b
      
  14. Future science : life energies and the physics of paranormal phenomena / edited by John White and Stanley Krippner.  1977  Book  Library Location: Main Collection - Malpass Library Call Number: BF1411 .F87
     
  15. Geller papers : scientific observations on the paranormal powers of Uri Geller / edited by Charles Panati.  1976  Book  Library Location: Main Collection - Malpass Library Call Number: BF1283.G4 G44  
     
  16. Intrusions : society and the paranormal / Hilary Evans.  1982  Book  Library Location: Main Collection - Malpass Library Call Number: BF1031 .E88 1982   

  17. Science and the paranormal : probing the existence of the supernatural / edited by George O. Abell and Barry Singer.  1981  Book  Library Location: Main Collection - Malpass Library Call Number: BF1045.S33 S38 

  18. Witch in the waiting room : a physician examines paranormal phenomena in medicine / Robert S. Bobrow.  2006 

    Library Location: Main Collection - Malpass Library Call Number: BF1045.M44 B63 2006  
  19.  Haunting of the presidents : a paranormal history of the U.S. presidency / Joel Martin & William J. Birnes.  2003  Book  Library Location: New Books - 2d Floor, Malpass Library Call Number: E176.1 .M367 2003
     
  20. Apparitions, healings, and weeping Madonnas : Christianity and the paranormal / Lisa J. Schwebel.  2004   
    Library Location: Main Collection - Malpass Library Call Number: BX1795.P37 S39 2004  

Pro/Con Pros and Cons of controversial issues.

Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center- viewpoint articles with statistics; biographies; court cases; and primary docs

ProCon.Org - Website with viewpoints on controversial issues.
 

Citing Your Sources

Diana Hacker’s A Pocket Style Manual features three popular formats: MLA, APA, and Chicago. Of the three listed, Chicago is most common for history. For special instructions on how to cite Internet sources, see Hacker’s A Pocket Style Manual, Fourth Edition, pages 174-175. You can, of course, always consult The Chicago Manual Style, 15th ed (located at the Reference Desk). For Internet sources, see Chapter 17. The Reference Staff has created handouts on the three popular styles.

RefWorks
To manage your citations, you might consider learning how to use RefWorks. It is citation management software that is compatible with most of the University Libraries's databases. Ask me how to set up a personal account and begin filling folders with citations. You will find RefWorks on the WIU Libraries list of databases. RefWorks school code is rwwillinoisu.
Persistent Links
"Persistent Links" connect users directly to a library database or article by clicking a link embedded in a webpage. Persistent Links can be useful when creating syllabi, online bibliographies and other research and information tools.
TinyURL
Shorten that long URL into a Tiny URL. Useful for making citations to online sources.

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