Encyclopaedias published on CD-ROM, such as Microsoft's excellent Encarta, have a wealth of relevant and interesting material in the form of text, pictures, maps, animations, sounds and video clips. Because most of these products originate from the USA, there is a natural tendency for them to have an emphasis on America and Canada.
The Internet search engines such as Alta Vista, Excite, HotBot, Infoseek and Northern Light are excellent means of finding sources of practical information about specific subjects, places, companies, products and services.
The members of the Travel-L and Travel-Ease Internet EMail discussion mailing lists may be able answer specific questions. As always, the replies may be more opinion than fact but they do usually attempt to be helpful. See the External Links page for details of how to subscribe.
The rec.travel.usa-canada Internet UseNet news group may be able to provide answers to specific questions. However, be prepared for the same mix of nonsense, spam, flame wars, largely ignorant opinions and occasional bad language which permeates all the news groups.
If you have any questions which the above sources cannot answer, please EMail me using the link at the bottom of this page and I will attempt to answer them. However, I certainly cannot claim to be an expert in everything (far from it!).
For those people who happen to live in or near Norwich, Norfolk, UK, the American section in the Norwich Public Library contains many useful books on the USA, including a fair number on its geography, history and tourist attractions. Although a few of these books are academic, the majority are quite normal books perfectly suitable for a general audience. Provided you are a member of the library then you can borrow these books. Although the collection in the original library was completely lost in the fire which occurred a few years ago, the new collection in the temporary lending library on Bur Street has been gradually built up and is now extremely useful. There are also folders with maps and leaflets for each state, but these cannot be borrowed.
The Chambers of Commerce and/or Convention and Visitors Bureaux of many American and Canadian towns, counties, etc now have web sites with information about their areas.
Most motel lobbies and offices have racks with tourist attraction leaflets and brochures, often almost exclusively for commercial attractions of very marginal interest, but these racks are always worth a quick scan.
The local Yellow Pages for each town you visit provide a good source of information regarding restaurants, shops and other businesses and services. Again, much of this information is also now available on the Internet.
Don't forget to make a point of visiting the Visitor Centres in National Parks, National Monuments and similar areas. They are excellent sources of information.
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