Definition of "FACT" in Fair Use

I was unable to find a group that discusses only Copyright and Fair Use
issues. If there is such a group I would to be pointed in that
direction.

I am the Director of Educational Technology of a US Medical School and
constantly field questions about copyright and fair use as it applies
to eduction. I was recently asked to define FACT when it applies to
copyright, as in, "you cannot copyright a FACT".

Here is my educated guess. The World Almanac is a publication of the
company World Almanac. If I were to pull the population of Malawi out
as a FACT and use it in a document I would not need to cite the WORLD
ALMANAC as the copyright holder. However if I were to pull out the
entire collection of facts on MALAWI as presented by WORLD ALMANAC then
I would potentially violate copyright law (depending on how it is used)
since that specific collection of facts and format is unique to WORLD
ALMANAC.

Any insight on this topic?

.