ELECTRONIC REFERENCE BOOKS

• Encyclopedia of Modern Asia

• 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
  This CIA publication, organized by country, provides a simple list of government offices and the name of the individual currently holding that office.
   
• Country at a Glance
  Organized by the United Nations, this site includes flag, latitude & longitude, total area, total population, population density, capital city, languages, largest city (and its population), currency, and UN membership date.
   
• Country Studies
  Compiled by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Army, this site provides book-length description and analysis of over 100 countries. Note the date of the information on the title page of each country.
   
• The World Factbook
  Produced by the Central Intelligence Agency, this guide has country profiles including information on geography, population and demographics, government, economy, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues.

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

• InfoNation
  This database from the United Nations includes 36 social, economic and environmental data series for all UN member states. The user can select up to seven countries for comparison.
   
• 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.
   
• 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.