Country + Regional Information

Bibliographic Database - no fulltext

African Training and Research Centre in Administration for
Development

Ceased January 25, 2011.

The Middle East Network Information Center (MENIC) at the University of Texas is the single best Web site for Middle Eastern studies. One of the resources on its home page is a set of links to more than two dozen other Middle East centers and institutes. Although some of these organizations offer individual services that MENIC does not, not one of them matches its comprehensive coverage of the region. The MENIC home page is a simple and extremely clear index of eight categories into which information sources are organized: ancient history and archaeology, arts and culture, business and economics, government and country profiles, maps and regional travel information, news media and newsgroups, religion, and oil and natural resources. There is an additional index for such resources as libraries, conferences, organizations and associations, reference works, and Internet search tools. The individual states of the region are featured along the left-hand side of the home page. Country names are emblazoned in red tags that bring up lists of databases and information sources for each of 23 Middle Eastern nations, from Afghanistan to Yemen. Each country page provides from a few to more than 40 links to in-country servers, as well as such online databases at the CIA World Factbook http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/nsolo/wfb-all.htm) , and Ethnologue http://www.sil.org/ethnologue), a very rich source of information about the world's languages. Because this Web site offers information about some of the most politically volatile countries in the world, it is inevitable that one occasionally encounters difficulties when trying to reach remote links in the region. The bottom of each screen in the system carries the same list of countries, allowing for immediate transfer from one country to another. A search engine for exploring MENIC's offerings adorns each page of the site. This regional microcosm is equally useful to undergraduates and area studies specialists.
-- L. M. Lewis, Eastern Kentucky University
(Reviewed in 2002sup CHOICE)