University Library > Countries

SELECTED RESOURCES FOR RESEARCH ON COUNTRIES

Contents:

General | Specific Countries | Periodical Indexes | Internet Resources

General

These sources provide brief entries emphasizing statistical and factual information.

  • General encyclopedias such as Britannica, Americana, and World Book (near Ref Desk). Britannica Online is available from the eBooks link on the library's homepage.
  • Almanacs and Yearbooks - World Almanac and Universal Almanac (Ref Desk) - short articles on individual countries, numerous worldwide statistical tables.
  • World Factbook - produced yearly by the CIA.
  • Statesman's Year-Book (Ref JA51 .S1) and the International Year Book and Statesman's Who's Who (Ref JA51 .I57) - brief overview of each country, some duplication but both may be useful.
  • Europa World Year Book (Current edition at the Reference Desk) (Ref JN1 .E85) - brief essays cover history, economics, government, etc. Many statistical tables.
  • Regional sources such as Africa South of the Sahara (Ref DT351 .A57) and Latin American History and Culture (Ref F1406 .E53) have more complete information.
  • United Nations publications such as the Demographic Yearbook (Ref HA17 .D45), International Trade Statistics Yearbook (Ref HF91 .U473) and Statistical Yearbook (HA12.5 .U63) provide valuable world wide statistics in their areas of coverage.
  • National Trade Data Bank - contains U.S. Department of Commerce trade-related information for numerous countries. Restricted to on-campus use.

Specific Countries

These are sources on only one country, with more information than is found in the general sources listed above.

  • The online catalog has entries for books about individual countries that may be found with subject or keyword searches.
  • There are encyclopedias for a single country e.g., Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan (Ref DS805 K633) and a series of historical dictionaries which also give more detailed information on a single country. An example is the Historical Dictionary of Benin (Ref DT541.5 .D4). Look for this series by doing a title search in the catalog, e.g., historical dictionary of
  • Area Handbook Series (U.S. Documents D 101.22:550-) this is a series of books on individual countries produced for the Department of the Army. Not all titles are in the library catalog so you will need to browse the stacks. Some handbooks are badly out of date.  The Library of Congress has made the series available online.  The handbooks replicate the print and have not been updated.
  • Publications of the U.S. State Department e.g., Background notes (U.S. Documents S 1.123): and Post reports (U.S. Documents S 1.127). Other Federal documents can be found using the online catalog or government documents CD-ROM and by clicking on the Government link in the Internet Resources section of this guide.
  • OECD Economic Surveys (International Documents OECD 10-)--for individual members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. This group is comprised of free-market countries.
  • Pamphlet collection materials. Pamphlets on individual countries are located in the pamphlet file cabinets. The quality and quantity of information varies widely but material for some countries is excellent.

Periodical Indexes

These help find articles in scholarly journals and popular magazines.  Off-Campus access requires UW-W login
 

  • ABI/Inform - (ProQuest) indexes over 3000 journals relating to business. Full text articles are available from over 2000 of the journals covered.
  • Academic Search Elite - (EBSCOhost) a broad-based index to over 3000 journals with full text articles from over 1000.
  • Lexis-Nexis Academic Use the Guided Search. Information from major United States newspapers and from newspapers around the world.
  • ProQuest Newspapers - indexes articles in several major United States newspapers and several Wisconsin newspapers. Includes many full text articles. Andersen library has back issues of the The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, and Chicago Tribune.

INTERNET RESOURCES

  • A start to finding information about various countries on the internet can be found through the library's homepage. Click on "Selected Resources on the Internet". Choose Government then follow the path Internet Publications/Country Information or select Social Sciences/International Studies.
  • Information about environmental problems and issues in specific countries is available at UNEP.NetEnvironment Network
  • Information on the internet may also be found by clicking on the button labeled "Search the Web" on the sidebar, Yahoo! has links to an extensive list of Countries. Useful information may also be available from commercial travel sites such as Lonely Planet. Choose the Worldguide option and then select your country.