Clearinghouses

• Bartleby's
• Information Please
• Library of Congress

Almanacs/ Atlases/maps

• Almanac of Policy Issues
• Altapedia
• Country-at-a-glance (United Nations)
• Information Please/ Time Almanac
• Nations Online
• Portals to the World
• U.S. Gazeteer (US Census Bureau)

primary sources

• American Memory - The Library of Congress, the largest library in the world, serves as the research arm of Congress.  At this online site, one can browse through their American Memory collection, which provides free and open access to historic maps, photos, documents, audio and visual clips.