Research Guides

Nations & Regional Transnational Organizations

Entries within each section of this guide are arranged so that the most useful,
comprehensive, or current web sites and sources are listed first.

Return to Government Documents Main Index

Web Sites

Nations and Organizations on the Web

Foreign Governments

http://www.library.nwu.edu/govpub/resource/internat/foreign.html
The Government Publications & Maps Department at Northwestern University Library maintains this page of links to web sites of foreign countries.

International Governmental Organizations

http://www.library.nwu.edu/govpub/resource/internat/igo.html
The Government Publications & Maps Department at Northwestern University Library maintains this page of links to web sites of international organizations.

International Organization Web Sites

http://www.uia.org/website.htm
Maintained by the Union of International Associations (UIA), this index page has links to web sites of international organizations. The UIA also publishes a print directory of international organizations (see the Bibliographies and Directories section of this research guide).

Top of Page | Main Index

Country Information on the Web

Country Studies

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html
A continuing series of books prepared by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress under the Country Studies/Area Handbook Program sponsored by the Department of the Army. The online editions in this series correspond to print editions that are available in Mugar Memorial Library. To locate the print publications, search the Boston University On-Line Catalog by title for "Area Handbook Series" (recent editions) and "Area Handbook for..." (older editions).

Major State Department Publications

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/rls/dos/221.htm
The U.S. State Department publishes reports containing information on countries and regions of the world, including the following:

• Country Background Notes
• Country Commercial Guides
• Country Reports On Economic Policy and Trade Practices
• Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

The World Factbook

http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html
A U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) web site with maps and brief information for countries. The World Factbook is also available as an annual print publication.
Mugar Reference X G122 .U56a Library has: Latest edition.
African Studies G 122 U56a Library has: Previous edition.
Law Ref G122 .U56a Library has: 1979 - present.

World News Connection

http://wncnet.fedworld.gov [BU community]
A full text database, international in scope, containing English-language transcripts of newspaper articles, conference proceedings, radio and television broadcasts, periodicals and non-classified technical reports. World News Connection is the online successor to the FBIS Daily Reports (see the International Relations section of the United States Federal Government research guide). World News Connection may be searched topically or by geographic region. Free text and boolean searches are also supported.

Top of Page | Main Index

Documents on the Web

Latin American & Caribbean Government Documents Project

http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/index.html
A Cornell University web site with links to online government documents of Latin American and Caribbean nations. Includes lists of links, arranged alphabetically by country, for executive, judicial, legislative, and statistical web sites.

EU Official Documents

http://europa.eu.int/abc/off/index_en.htm
Online versions of European Union documents, including treaties, legislation, and press releases.

UK Official Documents

http://www.official-documents.co.uk/
British Command Papers and House of Commons Papers are available online at this Web site. For Acts of Parliament and other United Kingdom legislative documents, see the Legislation section of the Web site of Her Majesty's Stationery Office.

Top of Page | Main Index

Statistics

LexisNexis Statistical Universe

http://www.lexisnexis.com/statuniv [BU community]
Statistical Universe is an online version of three indexes: American Statistics Index, covering 1973 to the present; Index to International Statistics (see next entry), covering 1983 to the present; and Statistical Reference Index, covering 1980 to the present. Statistical Universe indexes and abstracts social, demographic, and economic statistics from the U.S. government, the U.N. and other international governmental organizations, U.S. state governments, and U.S. private non-profit and commercial associations and organizations. Some statistical tables are available online in the database; almost all of the tables are available on microfiche in the ASI, IIS, and SRI collections in Mugar Memorial Library.

Index to International Statistics

LexisNexis Statistical Universe (see previous entry) is an online version of this index. The Index to International Statistics indexes and abstracts statistical publications of international intergovernmental organizations. IIS indexes and abstracts publications of the United Nations, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the European Union, the Organization of American States, commodity organizations, development banks, and other international organizations. The focus is on "coverage of basic economic, demographic, industrial, and social statistics of general research value and national or international scope." These include statistics on business and finance, economic development, agriculture, foreign trade, transportation and communication, energy, health, employment, education, government, and natural resources. An annual cumulative volume provides indexing by subjects, names, and geographic areas; by categories (including age, commodity, country, company, industry, and sex); by issuing sources; by titles; and by publication numbers. An accompanying volume contains abstracts of the publications indexed in IIS. Almost all of the publications indexed are available on microfiche in the IIS collection. Mugar Memorial Library has the complete IIS microfiche from 1983 to the present.
Mugar Reference X Z7552 .I53 Library has: 1983 - present.

International Data Base

http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idbnew.html
The International Data Base (IDB) is a computerized source of national demographic and socioeconomic statistics. Data are drawn from country sources and international organizations, and cover population by age and sex; vital rates, infant mortality, and life tables; fertility and child survivorship; migration; marital status; family planning; ethnicity, religion, and language; literacy; labor force, employment, and income; and households.

International Statistical Agencies

http://www.census.gov/main/www/stat_int.html
A U.S. Census Bureau page with links to national statistical agencies.

Statistics Canada

http://www.statcan.ca/
Demographic, social, socioeconomic, and economic statistics from Canada's national statistical agency.

Eurostat

http://europa.eu.int/comm/eurostat/
The web site of the Statistical Office of the European Communities, providing comparative statistical data collected from the National Statistical Institutes of the countries of the European Union.

OECD Statistics

http://www.oecd.org/EN/home/0,,EN-home-20-nodirectorate-no-no-no-20,00.html
Statistical data on economics, agriculture, energy, development, education and labor, science and technology, health, and transport for the countries that are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Top of Page | Main Index

Constitutions

Constitutions of the Countries of the World

This looseleaf collection provides scholarly editions of current constitutions. Pappas Law Library keeps some of the superseded, but historically important editions of constitutions published as part of this set. These historic editions are kept in binders next to the current set in the Law Annex.
Law Annex K3157 .B53

Constitution Finder

http://confinder.richmond.edu/
This Web site is an index to constitutions, both current and historic, that are available in digital format on the Internet. Nations of the world are listed alphabetically.

FindLaw: Constitutions of the World

http://www.findlaw.com/01topics/06constitutional/03forconst/index.html
Another site providing links to constitutional documents available on the Web.

International Constitutional Law

http://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/law/index.html
This database contains constitutional documents for a highly selective list of countries.

Internet Law Library: Laws of Other Nations

http://www.priweb.com/internetlawlib/52.htm
This is another Web site providing alphabetical links to national legal documents, including constitutions.

Top of Page | Main Index

Bibliographies and Directories

Guide to Official Publications of Foreign Countries

A highly selective annotated bibliography of official government publications of individual countries. The bibliography is arranged alphabetically by country, and includes entries for publications, if available, in the following categories: guides; bibliographies and catalogs; reference sources; directories and manuals; statistical yearbooks; legal and legislative sources; census publications; and publications covering economics, health, labor, education, the environment, and human rights and the status of women. There is a title index, also arranged alphabetically by country.
Mugar Reference X Z7164 .G7 G83 1997

Guide to Country Information in International Governmental Organization Publications

An annotated bibliography of the principal International Governmental Organization (IGO) serial and monographic publications that contain information on countries. The bibliography is arranged geographically by regions of the world, each of which is then divided by subject categories. The Guide is a good supplement to the coverage of statistical publications of IGOs found in the Index to International Statistics (see the Statistics section of this research guide).
Mugar Reference X Z6464 .I6 G85 1996

International Bibliography

A quarterly annotated bibliography of publications of intergovernmental organizations, including international and regional transnational organizations. The bibliographic records are arranged by broad subject areas. There are organization, title, and subject indexes in each issue, and these indexes are cumulated annually. International Bibliography ceased publication in 1991.
Mugar Reference X Z6482 .I55 Library has: volume 1 (1973) - 19 (1991).

Yearbook of International Organizations

A directory of international organizations, published by the Union of International Associations. Contains descriptions of each organization, a geographic index, a subject directory and index, and bibliographies of publications by and about international organizations. The compiler of the Yearbook also maintains a web page with links to the web sites of many of these organizations (see the Nations and Organizations section of this research guide).
Mugar Reference X JX1954 .F482 Library has: 1948, 1950 - 1974/75, 1977/78, 1981, 1983/84 - 1988/89, 1994/95 - present.

Top of Page | Main Index

Research Guides