2010
BACKGROUND NOTES WEBSITE (http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/)

• On the white tabbed tool bar at the top, click on the third tab “Countries and Regions”
• Under this tab select A-Z List of Countries. Then under SEE ALSO State Department Background Notes (third topic)
• NOTE:  The countries of North Africa are included under the category of “Near East”. 
• The other links are:
• Independent States, Dependencies, Areas of Special Sovereignty (http://www.state.gov/s/inr/states/)
• Diplomatic List (http://www.state.gov/s/cpr/rls/dpl/)
• Chiefs of State of Foreign Countries (http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/chiefs/index.html)
• Foreign Embassies in U.S. (http://www.state.gov/misc/10125.htm)
• U.S. Embassies, Consulates, Missions (http://usembassy.state.gov)
• Department of State Country Offices (http://foia.state.gov/MMS/CountryOffices/cntry_off.asp)\
• Post Reports (http://foia.state.gov/MMS/postrpt/pr_view_start.asp)
• International Organization Affairs (http://www.state.gov/p/io/)
• Regions
• African Affairs (http://www.state.gov/p/af/)
• East Asian and Pacific Affairs (http://www.state.gov/p/eap/)
• European and Eurasian Affairs (http://www.state.gov/p/eur/)
• Near Eastern Affairs (http://www.state.gov/p/nea/)
• South Asian Affairs (http://www.state.gov/p/sa/)
• Western Hemisphere Affairs (http://www.state.gov/p/wha/)

CIA-- The World Factbook-- Guide to Country Profiles (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/docs/profileguide.html):  The drop down box allows the searcher to select the country.  The list of Categories, Fields, and subfields of information generally recorded for each country are listed. Links are to the Notes and Definitions about each entry.

3. INVISIBLE WEB  (Library Databases)
· Newsbank
· Available to ALL students, parents, and staff in SFUSD
· At school access the site from the bookmark file or from the school district web page (http://storm.sfusd.edu)
· On the blue navigation bar underneath the district graphic, click on “Educators and Students”
· This will drop down a menu.  Choose “Teacher Interest”.
· In Teacher Interest, NEWBANK is the 6th item.  Click on this.
· Newspaper and magazine articles and documents from over 2,000 sources cover all subject areas. This Collection is updated daily, provides multiple viewpoints, gives local/regional/national and international perspectives, provides first-hand reports, and tracks trends over time. Sources include U.S. and international newspapers, wire services, speeches, radio and TV broadcast transcripts, science journals, historical documents, UN and U.S. Government documents.
· BACKGROUND NOTES, a current resource  from the U.S. government on countries, are provided in the database.  In the customized search screen, type the name of your country in the search for box and “Background Notes” in browsable fields- in source box
· At home, access Newsbank from the SFUSD website (http://storm.sfusd.edu).  The user name and password are both the same: ra-sfusd
 

· San Francisco Public Library (http://sfpl.lib.ca.us/)
· Many databases are available from the public library.  From the main page click on “E-books, magazines, newspapers, and other electronic resources”. Next, click on “E-books & Reference databases”.  To access this resource, you must have a public library card because you have to type in your library card barcode number.
· The databases are grouped by subjects.  The subjects that will be of the most help for this project are: Art,Music,Humanities, & Social Sciences; General Reference; Magazines & Newspapers. Above “Choose a Subject” and to the right there is a list of helpful items.  The last one on the list is “Test our trial databases”.  This will bring you to the Encyclopaedia Britannica on line.  The databases that will be the most useful for the country project are:
q Magazines—EBSCO and INFOTRAC
q Newspapers—Proquest
q Electric Library
q Encyclopaedia Britannica (on trial)

4. The Librarians’ Index to the Internet (lii.org)
This site contains websites that are constantly evaluated, updated and reviewed by groups of Librarians. Within subject headings,the categories of websites can include:
· Best of….
· Information from Stanford
· Encyclopaedian of the Orient
·  Directories
· African Studies Center site
· Specific Resources
· Africa News and Africa Online provide current news reports
· Contemporary conflicts
· Culture sites

5. The best search engine to use is Google (www.google.com).
· From the main search page,click on the tab labeled “DIRECTORY”.
· Click on “Regional”
·  Under “Categories”, click on AFRICA
· A list of  categories, most of which are the names of the specific countries, and web pages which can be listed in Google PageRank order or alphabetical order.

6.  Library Spot  (http://www.libraryspot.com) is a free virtual library resource center for educators and students, librarians and their patrons, families, businesses and just about anyone exploring the Web for valuable research information. We created LibrarySpot.com to break through the information overload of the Web and bring the best library and reference sites together with insightful editorial in one user-friendly spot. Sites featured on LibrarySpot.com are hand-selected and reviewed by our editorial team for their exceptional quality, content and utility.
Published by StartSpot Mediaworks, Inc. in the Northwestern University/Evanston Research Park in Evanston, Ill., LibrarySpot.com is the first in a family of vertical information portals designed to make finding the best topical information on the Internet a quick, easy and enjoyable experience.

To date, LibrarySpot.com has received more than 30 awards and honors. Most recently, Forbes.com selected LibrarySpot.com as a "Forbes Favorite" site, the best in the reference category, and PC Magazine named it one of the Top 100 Web Sites. LibrarySpot.com has been featured on CNN, Good Morning America, CNBC and in many other media outlets.
Go to  LibrarySpot.com.  On the yellow tool bar on the left side, scroll down to “REFERENCE DESK”, then to “Countries”. There are websites listed under three general categories: General Country Directories , World Regions,  Reference.

8.  The Economist (http://www.economist.com/) magazine on line is an excellent resource for current economic information.