Geography & Current Events

Geographical Resources
[Dewey numbers: 910s]
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General Guides	Africa	Asia/Pacific	Europe
Latin America	Maps	CountryWatch	World Issues

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Atlapedia Online - http://www.atlapedia.com/: Atlapedia provides facts, figures and statistical data on geography, climate, people, religion, language, history, economy and more in its Countries AtoZ section. The World Maps section provides full color physical and political maps for regions of the world. The Resources section of the site contains additional school or homework resources for teachers and students.
Earth from Space: Astronauts Views of the Home Planet - http://earth.jsc.nasa.gov/index.html: "The NASA Space Shuttle Earth Observations Photography database [consists] of over 375,000 images.... We are publishing these selected photos and related captions on the Internet to provide a glimpse of this national treasure to the public.... Within this set of web pages, you will find several ways to search the database and view multiple resolutions of each image with captions." Searchable categories include: Cities; Earth Landscapes; Earth-Human Interactions; Distinctive Features; Hurricanes & Weather; Earth's Water Habitats; and Geographic Regions.
Maporama- http://www.maporama.com/share/: You've used Yahoo! Maps to find your way around the U.S. This is the equivalent for the rest of the world. You can find any address anywhere in the world. Or... enter your "from" and "to" locations and Maporama will develop a route map for you. (LII)
Maps (About.com) - http://geography.about.com/science/geography/cs/maps/index.htm: From the About.com folks, this is a gateway to all things about maps online.
National Atlas of the United States of America - http://www-atlas.usgs.gov/: "This Atlas updates a large bound collection of paper maps that was published in 1970. Like its predecessor, this edition promotes greater national geographic awareness. It delivers easy to use, map-like views of America's natural and sociocultural landscapes. Unlike the previous Atlas, this version is largely digital. The new National Atlas includes products and services designed to stimulate children and adults to visualize and understand complex relationships between environments, places, and people. It contributes to our knowledge of the environmental, resource, demographic, economic, social, political, and historical dimensions of American life."
Perry-Castaneda Library Map Collection - http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/Map_collection.html: The Perry-Castaneda collection of online maps is very large, including maps from the U.S., its states and cities, and many countries of the world. (University of Texas at Austin)
Xpeditions Atlas - http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/main.html: "You’ve got the whole world in your hands—and nearly 600 National Geographic maps at your fingertips. Just click to a state, province, country, or continent; choose your settings; and print away! (Crisp and clear, these page-size maps were designed for printing and copying.)"
Yahoo! Maps - http://dir.yahoo.com/Science/Geography/Cartography/Maps/: Yahoo's links to maps and the science of cartography (map making). Categories include: By Region; Historical; Interactive; World; Companies; Libraries; Magazines; and Web Directories. For point-to-point travel directions in the U.S. or Canada click on http://maps.yahoo.com.

General World Guides [Dewey numbers: 910.202]

Government-Sponsored Websites

Country Studies - http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html: Library of Congress offers this series of online books which provide extensive information on all aspects of the country, its society, natural resources, econony, history, and international relationships. Searching can be done on individual countries, groups of countries or the entire database. Also from the Library of Congress: Portals to the World - http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/portals.html. Subtitled "Links to electronic resources from around the world," this page will eventually have links to Interent site covering all the world's countries.
Travelers' Health - http://www.cdc.gov/travel/destinat.htm: The National Center for Infectious Diseases offers health information for travelers to specific regions and countries of the world. Select "Destinations" and click on the region or continent you want information about, and the information will be displayed or choose a region from the dropdown menu.
U.S. State Department Background Notes - http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/: Information about the countries of the world compiled by the U.S. State Department. Select a country and information on that country will be displayed. Information includes a short country profile (geography, people, government, economy), and essays about the people, history, government and political conditions, economy, foreign relations, U.S. relations, and travel/business conditions. The RHS Library suscribes to these Background Notes which are filed in the "Country Files" drawer of the Pamphlet Files.
U.S State Department - http://www.state.gov/index.cfm: The genral Web site of the State Department, the government department that deals with diplomacy and foreign relations. Include links to pages about passports and visas, travel conditions, U.S. citizens abroad and more. From this site you can access International Travel - http://travel.state.gov/travel/ with information about current conditions in and warnings for travel to countires around the world as well as general tips for living abroad.
USAID Regions and Countries - http://www.usaid.gov/regions/: "The U.S Agency for International Development is the U.S. federal government agency that implements America's foreign economic and humanitarian assistance programs." At this site you can learn about development projects in various countries and regions of the world.
The World Factbook - http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html: Information on the countries of the world, from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

Non-Governmental and Commercial Travel Guides

Around the World (Yahooligans) - http://www.yahooligans.com/around_the_world/countries/: Yahooligans provides links to each of the countries of the world from this page. You can also see country pictures and videos from this page.
Columbus Guides - http://www.columbusguides.com/: Highbury Columbus Travel Publishing Ltd. produces the World Travel Guide. This website is the company's presence online. Available in English, German, Spanish and French. A World Airport Guide and in-depth World City Guide, providing information on 101 culturally important cities and a World Events and Attraction Guide make this a comprehensive source of travel information. The Bessie Chin Library has print copies of the World Travel Guide (REF 910.202 WOR).
Countries A-Z - http://www.cantonpl.org/youth/country/: This page on the Canton (Ohio) Public Library Web site has links to Web sites about the world's countries.
Country at a Glance (Infonation) - http://www.un.org/Pubs/CyberSchoolBus/infonation/e_glance.htm: Basic info about all the member countries of the U.N. After using a world map to choose a country, you will be provided with your selected country's: flag, latitude & longitude, total area, total population, population density, capital city, languages, largest city (and its population),currency, UN membership date, GDP, GDP per capita, and contact info for your country's Mission to the United Nations in New York and Geneva. (United Nations)
Country Watch - http://www.countrywatch.com/: This commercial Web site has lots of information about the countries of the world, including a map, local time in a city, largest cities, key data, (population, area, languages, etc.), information about the government, history, religion, economy, boundaries, ethnic groups, agriculture, energy, metal production, environmental issues. In addition, because the Tam District has a subscription we have access to a the last year's worth of news stories, arranged by country and twice a year receive Country Reviews, concise geopolitical reports. See the library media teacher (Mr. Kaun) for our user name and password.
Embassy Web - http://www.embpage.org/: "The EmbassyWeb turns its spotlight onto web sites maintained by foreign representations all over the world.... Tip: check the frequently updated World News page for current events relating to international affairs." Links are provided to: Diplomatic Offices; International Sites; Knowledge Base; World News; Open Forum; Global Bookstore; and a Newsletter.
Ethnologue: Languages of the World and a Whole Lot More! - http://www.ethnologue.com/: This electronic version of Ethnologue: Languages of the World presents the data used to prepare the printed volumes, along with links to the SIL Bibliography and the International Academic Bookstore. The Countries page displays the primary table of contents for the Ethnologue organized by geographical areas and countries. A country page contains descriptions of all the languages spoken in that country. Be forewarned that some of the files are quite large. Many languages are spoken in more than one country, and thus have entries listed at more than one country. To look up all the entries for a particular language, click on the More Information link; you will be presented with a list of other countries where the language is spoken and links to the bibliographic details of publications written about that language.
Excite Travel - http://travel.excite.com/: The Excite search engine puts up links to information on cities and countries. Includes information from the World Factbook, and usually has many links to additional information about countries, their people and institutions. Be sure to scroll down to Destination Guides and select a world region and then a country to explore.
Geography (About.com) - http://geography.about.com/science/geography/: Includes links to these topics: About Geography; Blank/Outline Maps; Cartography; Census/Population; Cities & Transport; Climate & Weather; Clip Art; Country Facts; Cultural Geography; Disasters/Hazards; Finding Places; Fun, Games & Humor; Geo Education; GIS & GPS; Historic Maps; Homework Help; Large Cities; Latitude/Longitude; Maps; Photos; Physical Geography; Rivers and Streams; Street & Road Maps; Time & Time Zones; Topographic Maps; U.S. Maps; World Maps; World Population; and ZIP Codes.
Greenpeace - http://www.greenpeace.org/search.shtml: Search the files of the highly respected environmental organization, Greenpeace, for information related to your country of interest. Just type the name of the country, and the files will be retrieved.
How Far Is It - http://www.indo.com/distance/: Use this Indonesian Web site to find out the distance between two places on the surface of the earth. (Not all locations are searchable.)
License Plates of the World - http://danshiki.oit.gatech.edu/~iadt3mk/: Though no longer maintained (last updated Jan. 1, 2001), this site provides a fascinating look at the variety of license plates of various countries.
Lonely Planet Travel Guides - http://www.lonelyplanet.com/dest/: Information on many countries of the world, of interest to people who would travel there.
Political Resources on the Net - http://www.politicalresources.net/: This site provides far more than just political resources. Click on a continent or region then on a country flag to be taken to a page of links to websites about a particular country.
Rough Guides Online: Travel - http://www.travel.roughguides.com/: From the folks who publish the Rough Guides series on travel especially aimed at students, this site has the complete text of the guides they publish. Click on the drop-down menus to get a list of countries, cities or other locations with guides, then choose a section of the guide to read.
Rulers - http://rulers.org/: "This site contains lists of heads of state and heads of government (and, in certain cases, de facto leaders not occupying either of those formal positions) of all countries and territories, going back to about 1700 in most cases. Also included are the subdivisions of various countries (the links are at the bottom of the respective country entries), as well as a selection of international organizations. Recent foreign ministers of all countries are listed separately."
World Heritage Sites - http://www.unesco.org/whc/nwhc/pages/sites/main.htm: UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organization) has designated some 690 places throughout the world as "World Heritage Sites." Use this page to conduct virtual visits to many of the sites.
World InfoZone - http://www.wtech.co.uk/World/: Information about selected countries can be found on this Web site. It also provides links to other sites about specific countries.
World66: The Travel Guide You Write - http://www.world66.com/: World66 is "an open content travel guide, where people from all over the planet can write about the places they love, the hotels they stayed in, the restaurants that have eaten." Every part of the travel guide can be edited directly. They claim to be "one of the most complete travel resources on the internet, with more than 50,000 articles on 10,000 destinations all over the world."
Return to the Redwood Cybrary Social Studies Page | World Issues Page

Maps [Dewey numbers: 911-912]

General World Guides [Dewey numbers: 910.202]