Annotation. A former US foreign service officer with a background in information studies, Langstaff selects and annotates studies of the Central American country in English, and in Spanish for topics that are not fully treated in English-language publications. She here updates the 1980 edition with publications up to 1998. The entries are presented in topical sections, among them tourism and travel guides, languages, agriculture, and professional periodicals. Only two of the five works cited in the transport section are specifically about the Panama Canal, but the canal figures into most aspects of the country's life. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.