 Background
Central Intelligence Agency — The World Factbook
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/
| More than 260 of the world's nations are studied through their geography, people, government, economy, communications, transportation, military, transnational issues, maps, and flags. Hyperlinks lead the user to Notes and definitions, Field listings (which compare different countries on specific criteria), and Rank order. |
Global Gateway: World Culture and Resources
http://international.loc.gov/intldl/intldlhome.html
This Library of Congress site provides resources on world culture, including audio and video files. Click on Portals to the World, then on the name of your country, for links to electronic resources from around the world. |
National Geographic
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/index.html
This site includes photos, videos, daily news stories, world music, and travel. The National Geographic Map Machine offers maps for nearly everywhere, viewable by population, climate, conservation, topography. |
 Phrasebooks: "a few good words"
| Want to get to know people better by speaking some of their language? Your instructor may be able to help you with this, but you can also help yourself. First, while you're here, use the online sources to learn basic words and sounds. Then go to your friendly neighborhood bookstore for a Berlitz phrasebook to tuck into pocket or pack for your trip. Like magic, you're bilingual! |
Foreign Languages for Travelers
http://www.travlang.com/languages/
| Be sure to scroll way down on the TravLang web page, and you'll find basic words, numbers, shopping/dining, travel, directions, places, time and dates for eighty languages. Phonetic notation and non-Roman characters for Asian languages are also given. |
BBC—Languages
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/
| The British communications network broadcasts online language courses including sound in French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Greek, and less extensive material in Chinese, Japanese, and other languages. Multilingual radio and TV programs are available; the news, in 32 languages. |
If you'd like to write in another language, numerous desktop and laptop computers in the Hedberg Library will let you type accents in French, German, or Spanish, as well as create Chinese or Japanese characters. Just letters, though, no translations! Instructions for configuring your own computer to write in other languages are found in Computers and Languages: Installation of Other Languages on WindowsXP and Vista.
 Fine arts, or big "C" culture
The fine arts—art, music, architecture, and even literature—are sometimes called big "C" culture and represent the output of individual artists, often members of the elite. Small "c" culture, on the other hand, comprises the shared values, customs, and behaviors of an entire society.
Art History Resources on the Web
http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHLinks.html
| This extensive site provides online images of art works, arranged chronologically and geographically, in addition to listing museums and galleries by country. |
ARTstor
http://proxy.carthage.edu/login?url=http://www.artstor.org/index.shtml
| A digital library of approximately 750,000 images in the fields of art, architecture, the humanities, and social sciences. Collections can be searched by country. |
Oxford Art Online
http://proxy.carthage.edu/login?url=http://www.oxfordartonline.com/
| Oxford Art Online, formerly Grove, contains 45,000 articles on the fine arts (painting, sculpture, and architecture) and the decorative arts, in addition to 130,000 searchable images and links to other web sites. To access Oxford from off-campus, you need a current Carthage webmail account to login to the Carthage proxy server. The paper equivalent of Oxford is available in the Hedberg reference area: Dictionary of Art, ed. Jane Turner. 34 vols. New York: Grove, 1996. Ref N 31 D554 |
Oxford Music Online
http://proxy.carthage.edu/login?url=http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/
| This important work contains over 45,000 articles, images, music examples, and links, with increased coverage of world, jazz, popular and twentieth-century music. To access Oxford Music from off-campus, you need a current Carthage webmail account in order to login to the Carthage proxy server. The hardcopy version is available in the Hedberg reference section: New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. by Stanley Sadie. 2nd ed. 29 vols. New York: Grove, 2001. Ref ML 100 N48 2001 |
NAXOS Music Library
http://proxy.carthage.edu/login?url=http://carthage.naxosmusiclibrary.com
| This 388,700 track sound library includes World / Folk and Chinese music among the genres on the lefthand menu. Music is streamed in Microsoft WMA 9.0 format. Windows Media Player 9/10 and NML's custom player, which uses Microsoft's Silverlight plugin, are recommended, the latter especially for Macintosh. Internet Explorer may function better off campus. Please logout of Naxos when you are done listening. |
National Anthems of the World [Magun's compass]
http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/8106/Anthems/
This site provides sound recordings of some 185 national anthems, as well as country flags. Available on similar sites are anthems in MIDI format, lyrics in the original language or in English, and the sources of the anthems' music and words. |
 Small "c" culture
Small "c" culture, also termed popular culture,
social life and customs,
or civilization, which anthropologist Ruth Benedict calls "our social legacy,...regulates our lives at every turn." Popular culture manifestations include mass media, clothing, cooking, and entertainment forms such as sports and literature. This section contains both general and discipline-specific resources. |
Countries and Their Cultures, ed. Melvin Ember and Carol R. Ember. New York:Macmillan Reference USA, 2001. 4 vols.
| This component of the Gale Virtual Reference Library focuses on cultures and countries around the world, specifically what is and is not shared culturally by the people who live in a particular country. Entries contain descriptive summaries of the country in question, including demographic, historical, cultural, economic, religious, and political information. |
Encyclopedia of World Cultures, ed. David Levinson. Boston, MA: G.K. Hall, c1991-c1996. 10 vols. Ref GN 307 E56
| This ten-volume work gives information on the history, location, religious beliefs and practices, arts, socio-political organization, language, economy, family, and kinship relationships of more than 1,500 national, ethnic, and folk cultural groups, both present and past. |
Greenwood's guides/handbooks to popular culture and Routledge's cultural encyclopedias also provide useful information on individual countries.
Museum of International Folk Art
http://www.moifa.org/
Crafts, the art of the people, play a vital role in the daily life of many of the world's cultures. The museum's collections include ceramics, basketry, metalwork, glassware, textiles, masks, costumes, and toys. |
Ethnomusicology, Folk Music, and World Music (Univ. of Washington)
http://www.lib.washington.edu/music/world.html
An enormous collection of hyperlinks, this site emphasizes the folk side of world music history and analysis and includes some streaming and downloadable audio in different formats. Most of the resources on this list are accessible to all, but licensed databases are restricted to the Univ. of Washington community. |
Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. Lindsay Jones. 2nd ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 15 vols.
| This component of the Gale Virtual Reference Library focuses on the role of religion within everyday life and as a unique experience from culture to culture. |
The Food Timeline: Food History Reference & Research Service
http://www.foodtimeline.org/index.html
The most delicious part of a people's culture—food commentary and recipes—takes many forms. This unusual database charts the historical emergence of each foodstuff into human cuisine, the dishes in which it began to be used, and how it was prepared. |
Many food history articles by famed writer Raymond Sokolov, originally published in Natural History, can now be read in fulltext through MasterFILE Premier and Wall Street Journal. (A proxy is required for off-campus access.) Hardcopy/microfilm is also available in the Hedberg Library collection.
Don't forget to check the Time-Life cookbooks for China, France, Russia, Latin America, and the Caribbean in the general TX section of Hedberg Library and Carthage's netLibrary electronic cookbooks. (To use the latter off-campus, you must first set up a netLibrary user account on a Hedberg computer or login to the Carthage proxy with your webmail username and password.) |
...and some good advice from Uncle Sam 
Tips for Traveling Abroad
http://travel.state.gov/travel/tips/tips_1232.html
Students Abroad...Go from Here
http://studentsabroad.state.gov/html-site/SmartTravel.html
Have a safe, enlightening, and enjoyable trip!
Maintained by Tina Eger
2 January 2009
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