Information Resource Center
 The
Information Resource Center (IRC) at the U.S. Consulate General
in Vladivostok provides extensive information on U.S. politics,
culture, history and thought. It is designed to provide reference
and research services to Russian government officials, journalists,
researchers, students and the general public. The IRC specialist
is available to perform information searches for patrons, using
the IRC reference collection, Internet resources and a number of
online databases such as Lexis-Nexis, Factiva, ProQuest Direct,
Federal News Service (FNS), STAT-USA, and GALENET.
Those with a specific question about some topic related to the
United States may call the Consulate and ask the IRC specialist
to research the answer. Interested patrons may also make an appointment
to visit the IRC, particularly if the patron wishes to do general
research about a topic related to the U.S. and utilize the many
sources of information available at the IRC.
The following is a listing of the various resources available at
the IRC.
Lexis-Nexis is a database service that provides access to
over 700 legal and news electronic libraries, including newspapers,
magazines, wire services, newsletters, journals, and legal resources
such as court cases and state codes. For the most part, it is a
full-text database that allows one to search and display the entire
texts of articles.
Factiva provides access to over 6,000 full text periodicals
as well as major news sources such as Reuters wires, the Wall Street
Journal and the New York Times. In many regions, Factiva provides
strong host country news.
ProQuest Direct is a database of over 4,000 indexed titles
and over 2,000 full text journals with images.
FNS provides transcripts to testimony, briefings, press
conferences and congressional hearings with questions and answers.
FNS also produces a daybook, which details significant events in
Washington as well as cabinet officer schedules.
STAT-USA contains information on U.S. statistics, including
the information from the National Trade Data Bank.
GALENET represents several online databases, such as Contemporary
Authors, Encyclopedia of Associations, Gale Business Resources,
Gale Directory of Databases, and Research Centers and Services Directory.
Besides its online databases, the IRC also has use of the ProQuest
computer system with its CD-ROM database (General Periodicals) that
contains abstracts and full images of general reference publications.
There are about 300 full-image-format journals in the database.
The ProQuest CD-ROM database is available to all Center patrons.
More than 40 key periodicals, predominantly from the U.S. (Business
Week, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, The Economist, Science,
Scientific American, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Far Eastern
Economic Review, etc.) are available for review in hard copy.
The collection also includes reference titles on CD-ROM, including
Foundation Directory, The Constitution Papers, Atlas of the U.S.
Presidents, Landmark Documents in American History, etc. and updated
versions of multimedia encyclopedias (Encarta, Grolier, Britannica).
Information Programs
The Bureau of International Information
Programs offers a number of electronic publications that provide
information about the United States, including the following:
InfoUSA provides general information about the United States
in both English and Russian.
The Washington File provides texts of U.S. Government official
speeches, press conferences and policy statements.
Electronic Journals are published on five issue areas: Economic
Perspectives, Global Issues, Issues of Democracy, U.S. Foreign Policy
Agenda, and U.S. Society and Values.
The Information Resource Center also maintains a daily electronic
distribution list that provides information on selected U.S. Government
documents recently made available in Russian, as well as highlights
from the latest Russian editions of Electronic Journals. If you
would like to subscribe to this service, please send an email of
request to pavlad@state.gov.
Contact information:
Information Resource Center
U.S. Consulate General
32 Pushkinskaya Street
690001 Vladivostok, Russia
tel. (7-4232) 30 00 70, ext. 4107 or 4109
fax: (7-4232) 30 00 95
email: pavlad@state.gov
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