Introduction

Library of Congress Classification

Online Catalog

Materials in Reference Collection

Indexes and Databases

Internet Resources

Introduction

Information about foreign countries has become vitally important with the expansion of the global marketplace. Students studying in the humanities, social sciences and physical sciences are faced with the importance of understanding the economic, political, social and religious backgrounds of people from countries outside the United States.

Research guides on Business, Political Science and World History also exist and may provide additional avenues for research.

Library Of Congress Classification

Library materials are organized by a system created by the Library of Congress that groups materials based on what they are about. This LC system uses letters and numbers to determine the call number of a book, which serves as that book’s address within the collection. The advantage of this system is that books about the same subject, say the French Revolution, should be in the same area. Find a good book on your subject and you should be able to find others in the same area.

The Library of Congress system places most books on foreign countries in Classes D and F. Additional materials may be found in Class J. These classes are further broken down into subclasses that define more specific subjects. Some important subclasses for foreign country study are listed below. Click here for a more complete look at Library of Congress Class D and Class F and Class J

Online Catalog

Specific books and other library materials can be found by searching the Online Catalog. This is a catalog that not only lists the collection of the Rockhurst University Greenlease Library, but can also be used to see the collections of the other MOBIUS libraries. For more information about the MOBIUS consortium, visit their website at http://mco.missouri.mobius.edu.

One can search by title, author, subject and keyword to find books owned by the library. Good first searches are subject keyword and title keyword searches. A good research strategy is called subject heading tracing. This strategy involves first doing a keyword search to find books relevant to a topic. Once a ‘good’ book is found, look at its subject headings. Then do a subject search and type in that subject heading. You should find other books on your topic this way.

Materials In Reference Collection

The library’s reference collection contains materials that are quite useful to students studying foreign countries. Encyclopedias are a good source to use to find basic information about a country. Several general encyclopedias are located at REF AE 5. Other useful reference items include:

Encyclopedia of World Cultures.
(REF GN 550 E53 1991)
This encyclopedia gives information about world cultures. Each entry includes information on the culture’s ethnonym, location, physical environment, demography, linguistic affiliation, economy, kinship, marriage and family, political organization and religion. The set includes bibliographies, maps and an indexes.

Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life.
(REF GN 333 W67 1998)
This encyclopedia emphasizes current living conditions, traditions and personalities of world cultures. Each entry provides an introduction to the culture’s historical origins, a description of the population and their homeland, names of languages, description of folklore, origins of religions,social problems and lots of additional information. A glossary, bibliographies and an index is also included. This encyclopedia is available online in the Discovering Collection databases. Use the Advanced Search Option and view the Browse Publication Title option to refine your search just to this title.

Country Studies.
Published by the United States government, these handbooks for individual countries provide in one volume extensive information about a country. Use the online catalog to find these handbooks by selecting "Title/Keyword" search and entering the country name and the words "country study". An example of this would be "Russia country study". Many are freely available on the Internet.

Statesman’s Year-Book.
(REF JA 51 S7)
Current statistical information about the countries of the world, as well as some international organizations.

Europa World Year Book.
(REF JN 1 E85)
Extensive statistical and textual information about countries, as well as information about international organizations.

World Factbook.
(REF G 122 U56a)
Facts about individual countries as well as interntional organizations. Reference maps are provided in color. This source is produced by the United States Central Intelligence Agency and is also available free on the Internet.

Encyclopaedia Britannica
(Ref AE 5 E363 1998)
The well-respected British-based adult encyclopedia contains text, illustrations, and maps on various subjects.

Kiss, Bow, or Shakes Hands: How to Do Business in Sixty Countries.
(REF HF 5389 M67)
This handbook gives cultural overviews and tips about what you can do and what you shouldn’t do when doing business in other countries.

International Business Information: How to Find it, How to Use It.
(REF HF 54.5 P33 1998)
This list sources to consult when doing international business research. It includes chapters of general sources, company information, marketing, industrial and economic statistics, and international transactions.

Indexes And Databases

Indexes and databases are tools used to find journal articles about a particular topic. Some are available only in print, while others will be electronic and may even contain the full-text of the article. See our Electronic Resources page for a complete list of electronic indexes and databases.

PAIS International in Print: Public Affairs International Service.
(INDEX AREA REF Z 7163 P9)
This index is arranged by subjects and includes citations to scholarly journal articles, books, government documents of the U.S. and other countries, pamphlets, selected internet materials, documents of international organizations and public/private agencies in the fields of business, economic and social conditions, public policy and administration, and international relations, in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.

Social Sciences Index.
(INDEX AREA REF AI 3 R491)
This index is arranged by subjects and includes citations to scholarly journal articles in anthropology, economics, geography, health, international relations, law, political science, psychology and psychiatry, public administration, sociology and social work. Online version is titled Social Sciences Abstracts.

Connect to Social Sciences Abstracts via WilsonWeb

Humanities Index
(INDEX AREA REF AI 3 R492 1974-2004)
This index covers many subjects in the area of the humanities, including history, theology and philosophy.

New York Times Index
(INDEX AREA REF AI 21 N44)
This index to one of the most respected American newspapers. This newspaper is also available full text in EBSCOhost and Lexis-Nexis Academic.

Wall Street Journal Index
(INDEX AREA REF HG 1 W26)
This newspaper provides extensive coverage of U.S. business, as well as international issues and business.

Business Periodicals Index.
(INDEX AREA REF Z 7164 C81 B983)
This index provides citations to scholarly journal articles covering U.S. and international business and economics.

GPO Monthly Catalog.
This index covers United States federal government publications. It is also available on FirstSearch.

FirstSearch (password protected)
FirstSearch is actually a cluster of over 40 databases and requires a training session to access. Some of the databases useful to researchers of foreign countries include:

Clase and Periodica
Contemporary Women's Issues
GPO Monthly Catalog
News Abstracts
Periodical Abstracts
SIRS Researcher

Business Source Premier
This database provides 3,300 full text scholarly publications, including more than 1,000 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to the full text, this database provides indexing and abstracts for more than 4,100 journals. This database offers information in nearly every area of business including management, economics, finance, accounting, international business, and more. Also included are country economic reports and company profiles.

Connect now to Business Source Premier

Military & Government Collection
This database indexes articles from approximately 400 military, scholarly and general interest journals. The articles are available full text from approximately 300 of these journals. Also included are full text country reports from CountryWatch and the full text of approximately 250 pamphlets.

Historical Abstracts
Citations and abstracts to scholarly journal articles covering history 1450 to the present, but excluding the US and Canada. Citations to books and dissertations. Covers approximately 1800 journals in over 50 languages. This database is updated monthly and coverage is from 1965 to the present.

Humanities E-Book Project
The American Council of Learned Societies provides this database which is the full-text of both in-print and out-of-print important books in the humanities, including the field of history. Due to copyright restrictions, the full-text cannot be printed or downloaded from the database. Some of the titles are available for purchase directly from the publishers through the database.

Lexis-Nexis Academic

This database offers full-text articles from a variety of scholarly journals, U.S. and international newspapers and other resources relating to business, law, government, and medicine.

A user's guide for this database is available in PDF format via Adobe Acrobat.

Connect to Lexis-Nexis Academic

For information on how to cite sources retrieved from Lexis-Nexis Academic, go to Citing Print and Electronic Sources in Research Papers.

Lexis-Nexis Statistical
Lexis-Nexis Statistical is an index to thousands of statistical documents produced by the United States government, state governments, organizations, research centers, international organizations and foreign countries. Some of the statistical documents are available full-text. Included on this site is the popular Statistical Abstract of the United States. This database contains the content of the print indexes American Statistics Index, Statistical Reference Index and Index to International Statistics.

A user's guide for this database is available in PDF format via Adobe Acrobat.

Connect to Lexis-Nexis Statistical.

For information on how to cite sources retrieved from Lexis-Nexis Statistical, go to Citing Print and Electronic Sources in Research Papers.

Internet Resources

Country Studies
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html
The Library of Congress provides web access to many of the country studies that are also available in our library in print.

Background Notes
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/
The United States State Department provides brief updated information regarding foreign countries.

World Factbook
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html
Statistical data and maps about foreign countries, provided by the United States Central Intelligence Agency.

Market Research Library
http://www.buyusainfo.net/
adsearch.cfm?search_type=int&loadnav=no
Industry data for regions and individual countries. Includes Country Commercial Guides produced by the U.S. Department of State, which cover the economic climate of foreign countries. Archived CCG information is kept on another site at http://www.usatrade.gov/website/ccg.nsf/ccghomepage?openform

Global Edge from Michigan State University
http://globaledge.msu.edu/ibrd/ibrd.asp#
This site is supported by the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) at Michigan State University. The site is divided into four parts: Global Resources, Country Insights, Market Potential Indicators and a Glossary.

Foreign Policy In Focus
http://www.fpif.org/
This website is a gateway to sites concerning global foreign policy issues.

International Monetary Fund
http://www.imf.org
Begun after World War II, this organization exists to facilitate monetary cooperation among it's member nations.

World Trade Organization
http://www.wto.org
This is the organization that deals with global trade issues.