Reference Book of the Week: The CIA World Factbook
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; link to official agency page). The CIA publishes annually The World Factbook. This is a great resource for country information; the book is a collection of country profiles. Do note that the concept of "country" is not just independent nations. Places like Puerto Rico (a U.S. territory) and the Isle of Man (a British dependency) have entries in the Factbook as well, so you can find information about a lot of places here.The CIA draws on various government agencies as well as public and private sources for the information in the book. The book has been published annually since 1981 with categories in the entries revised over time. With each entry, you get a set of categories: background, geography, government, economy, communications, military, transportation, and transnational issues (this would answer, for instance, if a particular country has an international dispute). The volume also features a set of helpful appendices in the back of the book and a set of color maps. So, what sort of questions can you answer with this book? For example,
- Can you tell me how many airports does Benin have? Yes. It has five (as of 2006). Out of those five, only one is paved.
- Can I get an economic overview of Israel? Yes, starting on page 288.
- What is the capital of Mongolia? Ulaanbaatan is the capital of Mongolia (see page 388).