Web Resources

http://www.mauritania.mr/
Official Government Site of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. (Arabic and French)
Links to information about the government, tourism, economy, industry, associations, community groups, education, and medical facilities of Mauritania.

http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Country_Specific/Mauritania.html
University of Pennsylvania – African Studies Center – Mauritania Page. (English)
The ASC website has been described by the (US) Library of Congress as the “most comprehensive on-line source for information about Africa.” This extensive site provides information on every country on the African continent. The Mauritania page includes links to: the CIA World Factbook, the Mauritanian Constitution, maps, the National Statistic Office of Mauritania, human rights information, additional indexes and bibliographies, and much more.

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/mrtoc.html
Library of Congress Country Study – Mauritania (English)
The Country Studies website contains the on-line versions of books previously published in hard copy by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress under the Country Studies/Area Handbook Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Army. The Country Study of Mauritania includes: a country profile, historical information, overviews of Pakistani society and the environment, information on Pakistan’s economy, industry, government & politics, national security, religious life, and more. It also includes an appendix to tables, a bibliography, and a glossary.

http://www.univ-nkc.mr/index.html
University of Nouakchott (Arabic and French, with an English version under construction)
Established in 1981, the University of Nouakchott is involved in education, training and research with 254 teachers and more than 8,500 students enrolled in three concentrations (Sciences & Technology, Arts and Humanities, and Economics and Law).
The library/bibliothèque page is here: http://www.univ-nkc.mr/BU/

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/destinations/africa/mauritania/
Lonely Planet World Guide to Mauritania. (English)
Geared towards the Western traveler, this site provides information on: transportation, average room & meal prices, government, people & society, and culture & history.

Print Resources

S. Coleman, 2001. "Librarianship and information science in the Sahel 1966-1999: an annotated bibliography," International Information & Library Review, volume 33, number 4 (December) pp. 275-315

Annotated bibliography consisting of articles, books, conference papers, dissertations, reports, etc., published in various library and information science forums on the subject of librarianship in the Sahel (English translation of the Arab term Sahil) which refers to the semi-arid region of western and north-central Africa extending from Senegal to The Sudan. The Sahel for the purposes of this work consists of the region of West Africa and the nations of Gambia, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Sierra Leone (does not include Nigerian library literature).
While this work is by no means an exhaustive analysis of the entire Sahelian library literature, it does strive to be comprehensive in terms of its country-by-country breakdown of librarianship within the region. In providing a citation for a non-English language work, the English equivalent of the title of that work will be given next to the non-English title.

Christopher Wise (editor), 2001. The Desert Shore: Literatures of the Sahel. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.

This is a collection of essays on literature from the area of West Africa which extends from northern Senegal and southern Mauritania generally easterly to South Central Chad. It encompasses "writers from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Togo."

Philippe Bourseiller and Jean-Francois Chaix, 2004. Sahara: The Call of the Desert. New York: H.N. Abrams.

Award-winning photojournalist Bourseiller, who spent four years documenting the Sahara Desert, collects the best of his photographs in this huge coffee-table book. Besides the expected shots of sand, sand and more sand—which are gorgeous in scope and detail despite their ubiquity—there are a surprising number featuring sparkling water and lush marshes. The book's fold-out map reveals that the Sahara is dotted with oases and springs and borders oceans, rivers and lakes. Still, water is a precious commodity in the desert, and Bourseiller reveals both its value and its scarcity in the lives of the desert's human inhabitants. Images of fish traps, sailboats, rice paddies and lapping waves contrast sharply with rocky outcroppings, dune seas, camels and veiled nomads. The photographs, organized into chapters with short introductions written by six of Bourseiller's scientist, geographer and journalist peers, usually spill across two vivid, glossy pages. While Westerners may think of the Sahara as the archetypal desert, an untracked wasteland of sand, Bourseiller shows it both as an unforgiving environment and as a beautiful place that stretches across four million square miles and 10 countries and encompasses ancient fortresses, hardy plants, thriving fishing villages, green farm fields and endless starry skies. (From Publishers Weekly review.)