The Gateway to Educational Materials
Content 
Gem provides various typologies of resources including lesson plans, webcourses, best practices, projects. A set of standards to include and present new materials is available. Resources are evaluated by authoritativeness, quality and availability.
Selection 
The Gem is an initative of the US Department of Education. Consortium members range from government agencies to educational institutions and individuals, from non-profit to commercial organizations
Format
Gem provides a variety of educational resource types from activies and lesson plans, to courses and communities. All resources are accompanied by metainfo and comments and, less often, by multimedia files
Information density
Gem catalogue contains detailed descriptions of over 40.000 educational resources provided by various internet sites, covering many subjects (e.g. arts, educational techonology, language, mathematics, science, social studies, vocational education and many others)
Content Pertinence to Political Science
Gem offers over 13.000 resources in the social studies area, including Political Science. However, their presence appears to be quite marginal
Updating Rate
The website is very frequently updated