International Government Information Search

Country reports

• Country Statistical Yearbooks
  University of Wisconsin's research guide to country statistical yearbooks or similar collections for 111 countries worldwide.
• Economist Intelligence Unit
• CultureGrams
• OECD Economic Surveys
  ZZ EC33... (Documents Reference and Compact Shelving)
• SourceOECD
  Full text of OECD books, periodicals, and statistical databases.
• Country Studies / Area Handbooks
  US1 DI6... (to 1998; Documents Compact Shelving)
  Online via Library of Congress: Country studies (1988-1998); Country profiles (brief; more current)
• International Monetary Fund
  Select "Country Reports".
• World Bank. Documents and Reports
  Select "Browse by country".
• World Bank. Doing Business
  See pull-down menus in the upper right corner or use Get Full Data to create a custom dataset.
• CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online)
  Research in international affairs. Includes maps, country data, and briefs from public policy institutes.
• Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada. Market Reports
  Select a region; then a country. Under Services and Resources, select "Market Prospect".
  Information includes country factsheets, economic reports, and industry reports.
• Export Development Canada (EDC). Country Information
• CIA World Factbook
• BBC News
  On the left sidebar, click on "Country Profiles"; then select a country.
  Information includes history, politics, and economic background as well as links to audio and video clips.
• Lexis/Nexis
  Search "Country Studies".

Articles

• Use research databases to find articles about a country.
  Some useful databases:
  • PAIS (public policy)
  • ABI/INFORM (business)
  • EconLit (economics)
  • GEOBASE (geography)
  • Worldwide Political Science Abstracts

Books

• Use yearbooks for country profiles.
  Europa world year book - JN1.E85 (Stauffer Library - Information Desk)
  Statesman's year-book - JA51.S7 (Stauffer Library - Information Desk)
• Search QCAT (Library Catalogue) to find books about a country.
  Examples (using Keyword search):
  "costa rica" and ecology
  japan and ("country study" or "area handbook")

Newspapers

• Factiva - international newspapers
• Lexis/Nexis - international newspapers
• World News Connection - English-language translations of international news reports
• More newspaper databases

Statistics

• United Nations. Statistical Yearbook
  UN4 ESA100 S79 (Documents Reference)
• United Nations. Demographic Yearbook
  UN4 ESA100 D29 (Documents Reference)
• International Monetary Fund. International Financial Statistics
  UN9 MF I52 (Documents Reference)
• UNdata
• World Bank
  • e-Library
    UN9 WB W52 (Documents Reference)
  • World Development Indicators
    UN9 WB W55 (Documents Reference)
  • Global Development Finance
    UN9 WB E86 (Documents)
  • World Bank eAtlas of Global Development
    UN9 WB 2007A73 (Documents)
• Penn World Tables
• Trade Analyser (World Trade Database)

Find more statistics sources

• Index to International Statistics (IIS)
  US7 CIS I53 (Documents Reference)
  Look up your topic or country in the Index volume. Using the item number, go to the Abstract volume to find the title. Then look up the title in QCAT.

Rankings

• United Nations. Human Development Report
  UN1 DP H72 (Documents Reference)
• World Economic Forum. Global Competitiveness Report
  SY7 WEF W51 (Documents Reference)

Human rights

• Amnesty International's Country Reports
• U.S. Department of State. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

Travel advisories

• Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada - Travel reports