The Information Resources Center (IRC)

Supports the objectives and programs of the Public Affairs Section, as well as those of other Embassy sections, by offering current, trustworthy information about bilateral areas of interest, U.S. policies, legislation, economy and social topics. Through its products and services, the IRC seeks to fill the information needs of a select public, thus contributing to the understanding of U.S. policies and the intellectual context in which they are developed.

All of our services are free of charge. For appointments please call us.
* We do not provide any information regarding consular issues

Services
All of our services are free of charge.

Reference
The IRC staff can be reached with your questions about U.S. history, policies, legislation, bills in Congress, or regulations, via fax, phone or e-mail. IRC receive visitors to our office with previous appointment.

Outreach
The IRC offers alert services for academic, students, English teachers government officials and private sector representatives.

Washington Files: daily news delivery service via email in English and Spanish.
About America: a periodical publication with topics of interest about the U.S. Society in English only.

Resources
In addition to a small reference library which includes books, magazines and CD-ROMs. IRC has access to documents, publications in full text and databases of the U.S. Government offices. Most of our research is carried out online; we have access to a wide variety of databases and Internet.

• Databases Available in Our Offices Only:
  Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
• Includes photos
• EbscoHost: Provides full text of approximately 3,200 scholarly journals covering academic areas such as social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, linguistics, arts, literature, medicine, and ethnic studies.
• Encyclopedia Britannica:Offers access to the Encyclopedia Britannica and several web sites related to it, among them the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.
• Factiva: A product of Dow Jones & Reuters which provides worldwide content, including news from Dow Jones, Reuters and The Wall Street Journal , only available on this data base. Offers news in several languages, covering around 8,000 sources.
• Federal News Service:Produces transcriptions bulletins issued by the White House, the departments of State, Defense and Justice; speeches and briefings by the leaders and political spokesmen, as well as testimony before Congress.
• Forum Magazine: A periodical publication of the Department of State with a wide variety of resources for English Teachers.
• Gale Virtual Reference Library: Is a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses. Best known for its accurate and authoritative reference content as well as its intelligent organization of full-text magazine and newspaper articles, the company creates and maintains more than 600 databases that are published online, in print and in microform.
• GaleNet: This data base, updated daily, combines biographical sources published by the Gale Group, such as Biography Resource Center, which includes full text articles from hundreds of periodicals, with InfoTrac OneFile, a source of news and periodical articles in a wide range of subjects: business, computers, current events, economics, education, environment, medicine, hobbies, humanities, law, literature and art, politics, sciences, social sciences, sports, technology and many more general interest areas. Millions of full text articles, many with graphics.
• Latin American Newsletters: (LAN) has been acknowledged as the foremost source of intelligence on political and economic developments in Latin America and the Caribbean. LAN’s comprehensive range of print and online resources offers a reliable, accurate and timely source of insight into key events that shape the region. English and Spanish available.
• Leadership Directories: Wide-ranging who's who databases of U.S. leaders.
• LEXIS:Very complete full text data base of federal legislation, historic and current, bills before Congress, state law, jurisprudence, law journals, etc.
• NEXIS: Includes more than 6,000 sources and full text of published news, among them The New York Times, The Washington Post and Associated Press wires.
• PolicyFile: Covers all public policy issues with abstracts available on everything from trade with Asia to health care reform, from telecommunications regulation to the European Union, from terrorism to intelligence reform, from Bosnia to Superfund. PolicyFile draws its contents form public policy think tanks, university research programs, research organizations and publishers. Some well known contributors include: American Enterprise Institute, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, CATO Institute, Center for Defense Information, Heritage Foundation, etc. 
• ProQuest Research Library: ProQuest offers immediate access to an extensive collection of newspapers, magazines, journals, specialized publications, and other sources of information. Includes the full text of more than 400 periodicals. It provides access to over 400 full text periodicals in the following formats: citations, abstracts, full text, image and image/text. It also provides citations and/or abstracts of over 1600 periodicals and newspapers including The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy.
• STAT-USA:The U.S. Department of Commerce Economics and Statistics Administration supports this online information resource. Is a single point of access to authoritative business, trade, and economic information from across the Federal Government.
• Treaties and International Agreements Online: Full text of U.S. bilateral and multilateral treaties and agreements, updated monthly.
• USA Trade Online: U.S. export and import information on more than 18,000 commodities world wide.
• United Nations Comtrade The United Nations Statistics Division compiles statistics from many international sources and produces global updates, including the Statistical Yearbook, World Statistics Pocketbook and yearbooks in specialized fields of statistics. It also provides to countries, specifications of the best methods of compiling information so that data from different sources can be readily compared. 
• Constitutions of the World & Dependencies and Territories Constitutions of the Countries of the World Online contains the full text for the constitutions of 192 countries. Constitutional scholars who are familiar with the legal system, judicial language and official language of each foreign jurisdiction provide authoritative translations into English.
• Countrywatch Up to date news and information on each of the 192 recognized countries of the world including demographic, political, economic, business, cultural and environmental information.
• EIU Reports: The Economist Intelligence Unit is a leading research and advisory firm with more than 40 offices worldwide. Provides authoritative analysis and forecasts to make informed global decisions. 
• International Crisis Group: The International Crisis Group is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization, with over 110 staff members on five continents, working through field-based analysis and high-level advocacy to prevent and resolve deadly conflict and many more.