ELECTRONIC REFERENCE BOOKS

• Encyclopedia of Modern Asia
• Encyclopedia of Modern China
• Nations of the World: A Political, Economic, and Business Handbook (2009)
• Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life

• Academic Search Premier
  Updated daily. Coverage spans virtually every area of academic study and offers information dating back to 1985.
   
• General Reference Center Gold
  Updated daily. Search magazines, newspapers, and reference books, and trade publications for business, industry, current events, arts and sciences, sports, popular culture, and more. 

Country Information

• Background Notes
  The U.S. State Department Background Notes provides brief country-by-country information on geographic entities (some countries are currently unavailable).
   
• Chiefs of State and Cabinet Members of Foreign Governments
  PDF versions of directories that list rulers and heads of states, by month and year, going back to January, 2001.
   
• World Factbook
  Published by the CIA, this Website contains basic statistical data on countries of the world. 

Maps

• Atlapedia
  This commercial Web site contains full color physical and political maps as well as key facts and statistics on countries of the world. A "resources" section contains additional school or homework resources for teachers and students.
   
• MapMachine
  National Geographic provides many kinds of maps for most places, from road, topographical, and population to political, satellite, "ecoregions," and more. Searching is easy and users have the ability to switch from one type of map to another for the same area.
   
• University of Texas Map Collection
  The University of Texas at Austin, Perry-Castañeda Library, has scanned maps in the public domain and provides access to many general and special interest maps of regions and countries, including shaded relief maps from the CIA. Links to other maps on other Web sites are also provided. 

Statistics 

• International Data Base (IDB)
  This computerized data bank from the U.S. Census Bureau contains statistical tables of demographic and socioeconomic information for 227 countries and areas of the world.
   
• Population Clock
  Current population of the World and U.S.
   
• Statistical Agencies (International)
  The U.S. Census Bureau provides links to the statistical agencies of many nations that provide summary level statistics for population, education, economy and other topics by country.
   
• UNICEF Statistical Data
  UNICEF provides statistical data by country, with an emphasis on information relative to children such as fertility rate, infant mortality, immunization, access to safe drinking water, literacy and education.
   
• U.S. Historical Census Data Browser
  The data presented here describe the population and economy of U.S. states and counties from 1790 to 1960. The original source of the each decade's data is the decennial census conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.