INTERNATIONAL

Sometimes the research task begins with the simple question: "How do I get in touch with this constituent? Is our contact information right?" Researchers who keep their access to reliable phone books fresh and ready stay . . . well, fresh and ready.

CONTENTS:

• Infobel
• NumberWay
• My Telus

INFOBEL

When you visit Infobel, you will first choose one of six regions: North America and the Caribbean, Europe, South and Central America, Asia and the Middle East, Africa or Australia and the Pacific. Choose a country, and the phone directories appearing next will be ranked (with the familiar star system) to make your next choice easier. Or, use Infobel's country and language menu on the left side of the screen. Simplest of all, use the search field at the top of the home page to select the country where your constituent lives and the type of contact information (e-mail, white pages, yellow pages, business directory) you are seeking, and the directory you need will arrive on your desktop.

http://www.infobel.com/teldir/

NUMBERWAY

A nice feature at NumberWay is a bit of narrative at the beginning of each link that tells you how the phone directories or territories covered are organized and even how to dial (the country code and if an area code is necessary). The home page groups the directory links into regions and continents and includes dated updates such as "replaced Gibraltar directory" and "added extra directory for Czech Republic." Now, that's a nice feature.

http://www.numberway.com/

MY TELUS

Telus, the Canadian telecommunications company, gives users easy access to contact information across the provinces. Using the SuperPages.ca search tool, Telus adds a few features to the People Finder page to make it more user-friendly. Look up individuals by name and location or use the reverse directory if your starting point is a phone number. Some listings even include valuable "listing last updated" and "listing first published" information. Don't we wish they all did? Use the business finder to look for companies across Canada.

http://people.superpages.ca/people.jsp?STYPE=S&SRC=mytelus

Cecilia Hogan

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