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 PATHFINDERS     
Methuen High School Media Center--Methuen, MA
Pathfinders are pages that offer students selected resources in a variety of media 
on a topic they are researching. They provide a head start for students as they 
begin their research project.

Countries

To find books in the MHS Media Center, open Spectrum (the electronic card catalog) located on the student desk top.  Try a keyword search using the name of the country that you wish to research.  Try a subject search using the name of the country and compare the results of both searches.  Examples: Afghanistan or Italy, etc.

Try a subject search for the country followed by the words description and travel
   Such as : Spain--Description and travel

Any general encyclopedias such as World Book,  Americana contain country information.  Remember that you want the most recently published encyclopedia for the most up-to-date information.

Check the Fiesta series.  The MC has many of the country books in this series, and it is a great source for country information.

Some titles we have are:

REF
306
CUL		 CultureGrams. Utah: ProQuest Information and Learning Company, 2004.
REF
306.03
COU		 Ember, Carol R. Countries and Their Cultures. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2001.
REF
910
WOR		 World Book Encyclopedia of People and Places.  Chicago: World Book, 2007.
REF
910
WOR		 Gall, Susan B. Worldmark Chronology of the Nations. Detroit: Gale Group, 2000.

SELECTED WEB SITES

CIA World Factbook
https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html
 Includes maps, flags, and information on geography, people, government, communication, transportation, etc.

U.S. Dept. of State
http://www.state.gov/countries
A-Z listing of countries of the world.
Countries of the World (Country profiles)
http://www.infoplease.com/countries.html
From informationplease.com includes current rulers, largest cities, literacy rates, religions, languages, exchange rates, travel warnings and more.

Country Studies From the Library of Congress
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html
Online full text versions provided by the Library of Congress.

Geography IQ
 http://www.geographyiq.com/
Find information on climate, weather, the economy, government, political, historical and cultural traditions.

Portals to the World
http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/portals.html
"Contains selective links providing authoritative, in-depth information about the nations and other areas of the world.

TRAVEL GUIDES

Lonely Planet Destinations
 http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/
Good place for the would-be traveler.  Includes facts, attractions, environment and when to go.

Travel.org: The Directory for Travel
 http://www.travel.org
Travel info for cities all over the world.

Fodor's Travel Guides
http://www.fodors.com/
Fodor's travel guide online

Frommer's Travel Guides
 http://frommers.com/destinations


Hotels
http://www.spain-hoteles.com

http://venere.com

Money...dollars to Euros
http://xe.com/ucc

World Atlas
http://www.worldatlas.com/

Atlapedia Online
http://www.atlapedia.com
Contains full color physical and political maps, as well as key facts and statistics on countries of the world.

ONLINE RESOURCES

Infotrac -- contains databases of magazine articles, a biography resource, and health and business references.  Try Reference Center Gold, Expanded Academic ASAP, and Biography Resource Center.

bigchalk eLibrary -- online reference center including books, magazines, newspapers, pictures, maps, and TV transcripts.

 Massachusetts Newsstand -- newspaper articles from the Boston Globe (1980 -  current), Boston Herald (1991 - current), and ten other Massachusetts Newspapers.

Grolier Online -- 2 electronic encyclopedias-- New Book of Knowledge and Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia.  Articles in these encyclopedias link you to other articles and also to relevant Web sites where you can find more information on your topic.

REMOTE ACCESS

These databases are also available from home. You can gain access to these resources from 
home by going to the Answers...To Go! web page made available from the 
Northeast Massachusetts Regional Library System:

http://www.nmrls.org/answers/dbmvlc.html

and enter your public library card number (from Methuen or any MVLC member 
library) where you are prompted for a patron or user number.

CITING SOURCES

Using these links indicates the user is leaving the
district server and that linked material is not
necessarily approved by the district.

Edited by Media Staff
11/14/08
Date last edited
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