A few places on line where you might begin your search search for information for the Updates are listed here. If you find an out-of-date link, let me know so I can update this page. Providing the new address will be greatly appreciated.

The Census Bureau collects information of all sorts, including data about retailing, manufacturing, and other economic activities. This is a good place to get information about people or economic activities by state or county for the United States.

As its name suggests The World Fact Book is another good general source. If you are looking for information for places outside the United States, you might try this source.

Even though encyclopedias are not very sophisticated sources, they do provide basic information on a wide variety of topics. A place to start is the Geography Section of the Free Internet Encyclopedia.

A place that will get you to other places is the "Other Sites" section of the National Council for Geographic Education page. It contains other material that might be of interest to you, especially if you plan to teach.

For those of you who plan to teach, and for others who like the things the National Geographic Society produces, you might check their site.  This link is connected to their geographic education page, but you can branch to the rest of their site from there.

For a variety of information about Texas pertaining to government, population, and the economy visit the Window on State Government. These pages are maintained by the Comptroller's office.

For information concerning Canada, check out the Statistics Canada page. It is a bit like the US Census page.

Transportation-related data is available from the US Department of Transportation. This source includes information on commodity flows between NAFTA partners.

The Economics Data section of the WebEc page is another source listing other sources. Its listings are extensive and are probably worth a look.

For material on a wide variety of topics concerning our neighbor to the south, try the Mexico Index. It contains many links as well as information on economic activities in Mexico.

For information about other Latin American countries, try the lanic (Latin American Network Information Center) page. It is accessed through the Universty of Texas.

For information about a place closer to home, try the Port of Houston page. It contains all sorts of information including links to other places, such as the city of Houston page.

Information about the labor force, such as how many people are employed by a particular industry, is available on line from the Bureau of Economic Analysis or the Bureau of Labor Statistics. These data are available by year so you can track changes in employment.

A good source of all kinds of information can be gleaned from maps. Check out a variety of maps, including outline maps you can use to map your own data at the National Atlas website.