(Redirected from Encyclopedia Britannica)
The '''Encyclopædia Britannica''' is a general
English-language encyclopaedia published by
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., a
privately held company in
Chicago, Illinois. The articles in the ''Britannica'' are aimed at educated adult readers, and written by a staff of 19 full-time editors and over 4,000 expert contributors. It is widely considered to be the most scholarly of encyclopaedias.
[1]14
The ''Britannica'' is the oldest English-language encyclopaedia that is still in print.
[2] It was first published between 1768 and 1771 in
Edinburgh and quickly grew in popularity and size, with its third edition in 1801 reaching 20 volumes.
[3]29 Its rising stature helped in recruiting eminent contributors, and the 9th edition (1875–1889) and the
11th edition (1911) are regarded as landmark encyclopaedias for scholarship and literary style.
3 Beginning with the 11th edition, the ''Britannica'' gradually shortened and simplified its articles to make them more accessible and to broaden its
North American market.
3 In 1933, the ''Britannica'' became the first encyclopaedia to adopt a "continuous revision" policy, in which the encyclopaedia is continually reprinted and every article is updated on a regular schedule.
29
The current edition (the 15th) has a unique three-part structure: a 12-volume ''
Micropædia'' of short articles (generally having fewer than 750 words), a 17-volume ''
Macropædia'' of long articles (having from two to 310 pages) and a single ''
Propædia'' volume intended to give a
hierarchical outline of human knowledge. The ''Micropædia'' is meant for quick fact-checking and as a guide to the ''Macropædia''; readers are advised to study the ''Propædia'' outline to understand a subject's context and to find other, more detailed articles.
[4] The size of the ''Britannica'' has remained roughly constant over the past 70 years, with about 40 million words on half a million topics.
[5] Although publication has been based in the
United States since 1901, the ''Britannica'' has maintained its traditional
British spelling.
1
Over the course of its history, the ''Britannica'' has had difficulty remaining profitable—a problem faced by many encyclopaedias.
2 Some articles in certain earlier editions of the ''Britannica'' have been criticised for inaccuracy, bias or unqualified contributors.
331 The accuracy of parts of the present edition has likewise been questioned,
186 although such criticisms have been challenged by the ''Britannica's'' management.
87 Despite these criticisms, the ''Britannica'' retains its reputation as a reliable research tool.
History
Main articles: History of the Encyclopædia Britannica
Overview
Ownership of the ''Britannica'' has changed many times, with past owners including the Scottish publisher
A & C Black,
Horace Everett Hooper,
Sears Roebuck and
William Benton. The present owner of Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. is
Jacqui Safra,
Swiss billionaire and actor. Recent advances in
information technology and the rise of electronic encyclopedias such as ''
Encarta'' and
Wikipedia have reduced the demand for print encyclopedias.
[6] To remain competitive, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. has stressed the good reputation of the ''Britannica'', reduced its price and production costs, and developed electronic versions on
CD-ROM,
DVD and the
World Wide Web. Since the early 1930s, the company has also promoted
spin-off reference works.
Editions
Title page of the first edition of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica''
The ''Britannica'' has been issued in 15 official editions, with multi-volume supplements to the 3rd and 5th editions (see the
Table below). Strictly speaking, the 10th edition was only a supplement to the 9th edition, just as the 12th and 13th editions were supplements to the 11th edition. The 15th edition underwent a massive re-organisation in 1985, but the updated, current version is still known as the 15th edition.
Throughout its history, the ''Britannica'' has been devoted to two aims: to be an excellent reference book and to provide educational material for those who wish to study.
2 In 1974, the 15th edition adopted a third goal: to systematise all of human knowledge.
4 The history of the ''Britannica'' can be divided into five main eras, punctuated by major changes in management or re-organisation of the encyclopaedia.
In the first era (1st–6th editions, 1768–1826), the ''Britannica'' was managed by its original founders,
Colin Macfarquhar and
Andrew Bell, and by their friends and relations, such as
Thomas Bonar,
George Gleig and
Archibald Constable. The ''Britannica'' was first published between 1768 and 1771 in
Edinburgh as the ''Encyclopædia Britannica, or, A dictionary of arts and sciences, compiled upon a new plan''. It was conceived as a conservative reaction to the provocative French ''
Encyclopédie'' of
Denis Diderot (published 1751–1766), which in turn had been inspired by the earlier Chambers Cyclopaedia. The ''Britannica'' was primarily a Scottish enterprise, as symbolised by its
thistle logo, the
floral emblem of
Scotland. The founding of the encyclopaedia is one of the most famous and enduring legacies of the
Scottish Enlightenment.
[7] In this era, the ''Britannica'' moved from being a three-volume set (1st edition) compiled by one young editor—
William Smellie—
[8]to a 20-volume set written by numerous authorities. Although several other encyclopaedias competed with the ''Britannica'', such as ''
Rees's Cyclopaedia'' and
Coleridge's ''
Encyclopaedia Metropolitana'', these competitors either went bankrupt or were left unfinished due to disagreements among their editors. By the close of this era, the ''Britannica'' had developed a network of illustrious contributors, primarily through personal friendships with the editors, most notably Constable and Gleig.
The middle 19th century editions of ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' included seminal research such as
Thomas Young's article on Egypt, which included the translation of the
hieroglyphics on the
Rosetta Stone (pictured).
During the second era (7th–9th editions, 1827–1901), the ''Britannica'' was managed by the
Edinburgh publishing firm,
A & C Black. Although some contributors were again recruited through personal friendships of the chief editors, most notably
Macvey Napier, others were attracted by the ''Britannica's'' ever-improving reputation. The contributors often came from other countries and included some of the world's most respected authorities in their fields. A general index of all articles was included for the first time in the 7th edition, a practice that was maintained until 1974. The first English-born editor-in-chief was
Thomas Spencer Baynes, who oversaw the production of the famous 9th edition; dubbed the "Scholar's Edition", the 9th is often considered to be the most scholarly ''Britannica'' ever produced.
13 However, by the close of the 19th century, the 9th edition was outdated and the ''Britannica'' faced significant financial difficulties.
In the third era (10th–14th editions, 1901–1973), the ''Britannica'' was managed by
American businessmen, who introduced aggressive marketing practices, such as
direct marketing and
door-to-door sales, to increase profits. The American owners also gradually simplified the ''Britannica's'' articles, making them less scholarly but more intelligible to a mass market. The 10th edition was a rapidly produced supplement to the 9th edition, but the 11th edition is still praised for its excellence; its owner,
Horace Hooper, lavished enormous effort on its perfection.
3 When Hooper fell into financial difficulties, the ''Britannica'' was managed by
Sears Roebuck for roughly 18 years (1920–1923, 1928–1943). In 1932, the vice-president of Sears,
Elkan Harrison Powell, assumed the presidency of the ''Britannica''; in 1936, he began the policy of continuous revision (still practiced today), in which every article is checked and possibly revised at least twice a decade. This was a major departure from earlier practice, in which the articles were not changed until a new edition was produced, at roughly 25-year intervals, with some articles being carried over unchanged from earlier editions.
29 Powell aggressively developed new educational products that built upon the ''Britannica's'' reputation. In 1943, ownership passed from Sears Roebuck to
William Benton, who managed the ''Britannica'' until his death in 1973. Benton also set up the
Benton Foundation, which managed the ''Britannica'' until 1996. In 1968, near the end of this era, the ''Britannica'' celebrated
its bicentennial.
In the fourth era (15th edition, 1974–1994), the ''Britannica'' introduced its 15th edition, which was re-organised into three parts: the ''
Micropædia'', the ''
Macropædia'' and the ''
Propædia''. Under the influence of
Mortimer J. Adler (member of the Board of Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica since its inception in 1949, and its chairman from 1974; director of editorial planning for the fifteenth edition of ''Britannica'' from 1965),
[9] the ''Britannica'' sought not only to be a good reference work and educational tool, but also to systematise all of human knowledge. The absence of a separate index and the grouping of articles into two parallel encyclopaedias (the ''Micro-'' and ''Macropædia'') provoked a "firestorm of criticism" of the initial 15th edition.
1[10] In response, the 15th edition was completely re-organised and indexed for a re-release in 1985. This second version of the 15th edition continues to be published and revised; the latest version is the 2007 print version. The official title of the 15th edition is the ''New Encyclopædia Britannica'', although it has also been promoted as ''Britannica 3''.
1
In the fifth era (1994–present), digital versions of the ''Britannica'' have been developed and released on
optical media and online. In 1996, the ''Britannica'' was bought from the
Benton Foundation by
Jacqui Safra at well below its estimated value, owing to the company's financial difficulties. The
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. company split in 1999. One part retained the company name and developed the print version, and the other part,
Britannica.com Inc., developed the digital versions. Since 2001, these two companies share a single
CEO,
Ilan Yeshua, who has continued
Powell's strategy of growing
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. by introducing new products branded with the ''Britannica'' name.
Dedications
The ''Britannica'' was
dedicated to the reigning
British monarch from 1788 to 1901 and then, upon its sale to an
American partnership, to both the British monarch and the
President of the United States.
1 Thus, the 11th edition is "dedicated by Permission to His Majesty
George the Fifth, King of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, Emperor of India, and to
William Howard Taft, President of the United States of America."
[11] The order of the two dedications has changed with the relative power of the United States and Britain, and with the relative sales of the ''Britannica'' in these countries; the 1954 version of the 14th edition is "Dedicated by Permission to the Heads of the Two English-Speaking Peoples,
Dwight David Eisenhower, President of the United States of America, and Her Majesty,
Queen Elizabeth the Second."
[12] Consistent with this tradition, the 2007 version of the current 15th edition is "dedicated by permission to the current President of the United States of America,
George W. Bush, and Her Majesty,
Queen Elizabeth II."
[13]
Critical and popular assessments
Reputation
Since the 3rd edition, the ''Britannica'' has enjoyed a popular and critical reputation for general excellence.
1[14][15] Various editions from the 3rd to the 9th were pirated for sale in the
United States,
3 beginning with
Dobson's Encyclopædia.
[16] On the release of the 14th edition,
''Time'' magazine dubbed the ''Britannica'' the "Patriarch of the Library".
[17] In a related advertisement, naturalist
William Beebe was quoted as saying that the ''Britannica'' was "beyond comparison because there is no competitor."
[18] References to the ''Britannica'' can be found throughout
English literature, most notably in one of
Arthur Conan Doyle's favourite
Sherlock Holmes stories, "
The Red-Headed League". The tale was highlighted by the
Lord Mayor of London, Gilbert Inglefield, at the
bicentennial of the ''Britannica''.
19
The ''Britannica'' has a popular reputation for summarising all of human knowledge.
32 To further their education, many have devoted themselves to reading the entire ''Britannica'', taking anywhere from three to 22 years to do so.
3 When
Fat'h Ali became the
Shah of Persia in 1797, he was given a complete set of the ''Britannica's'' 3rd edition, which he read completely; after this feat, he extended his royal title to include "Most Formidable Lord and Master of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica''."
[19] Writer
George Bernard Shaw claimed to have read the complete 9th edition—except for the science articles
3—and
Richard Evelyn Byrd took the ''Britannica'' as reading material for his five-month stay at the
South Pole in 1934. More recently,
A.J. Jacobs, an editor at ''
Esquire'' magazine, read the entire 2002 version of the 15th edition, describing his experiences in the well-received 2004 book, ''. Only two people are known to have read two independent editions: the author
C. S. Forester3 and
Amos Urban Shirk, an American businessman, who read the 11th and 14th editions, devoting roughly three hours per night for four and a half years to read the 11th.
[20] Several editors-in-chief of the ''Britannica'' are likely to have read their editions completely, such as
William Smellie (1st edition),
William Robertson Smith (9th edition), and
Walter Yust (14th edition).
Awards
The ''Britannica'' continues to win awards. The online ''Britannica'' won the 2005
Codie award for "Best Online Consumer Information Service";
[21] the Codie awards are granted yearly by the
Software and Information Industry Association to recognise the best products among categories of software. In 2006, the ''Britannica'' was again a finalist.
[22] Similarly, the CD/DVD-ROM version of the ''Britannica'' received the 2004 Distinguished Achievement Award from the
Association of Educational Publishers,
[23] and Codie awards in 2001 and 2002.
[24][25]
Coverage of topics
As a general encyclopaedia, the ''Britannica'' seeks to describe as wide a range of topics as possible. The topics are chosen in part by reference to the ''
Propædia'' "Outline of Knowledge".
4 The bulk of the ''Britannica'' is devoted to geography (26% of the ''
Macropædia''), biography (14%), biology and medicine (11%), literature (7%), physics and astronomy (6%), religion (5%), art (4%), Western philosophy (4%), and law (3%).
1 A complementary study of the ''
Micropædia'' found that geography accounted for 25% of articles, science 18%, social sciences 17%, biography 17%, and all other humanities 25%.
14 Writing in 1992, one reviewer judged that the "range, depth, and catholicity of coverage [of the ''Britannica''] are unsurpassed by any other general encyclopedia."
[26]
The ''Britannica'' does not cover equivalent topics in equivalent detail; for example, the whole of
Buddhism and most other religions is covered in a single ''
Macropædia'' article, whereas 14 articles are devoted to
Christianity, comprising nearly half of all religion articles.
[27] However, the ''Britannica'' has been lauded as the ''least'' biased of general encyclopedias marketed to Western readers
1 and praised for its biographies of important women of all eras.
14
Criticisms
The ''Britannica'' has also received strong criticism, especially as its editions become outdated. It is expensive to produce a completely new edition of the ''Britannica,''
[28] and its editors generally delay this for as long as fiscally sensible (usually about 25 years).
[29] For example, despite the policy of continuous revision, the 14th edition had become significantly outdated after 35 years (1929–1964). When American physicist
Harvey Einbinder detailed its failings in his 1964 book, ''The Myth of the Britannica'',
[30] the encyclopedia was provoked to produce the 15th edition, which required 10 years of work.
1 It is still difficult to keep the ''Britannica'' current; one recent critic writes, "it is not difficult to find articles that are out-of-date or in need of revision," noting that the longer ''Macropædia'' articles are more likely to be outdated than the shorter ''Micropædia'' articles.
1 Information in the ''Micropædia'' is sometimes inconsistent with the corresponding ''Macropædia'' article(s), mainly because of the failure to update one or the other.
1415 The bibliographies of the ''Macropædia'' articles have been criticised for being more out-of-date than the articles themselves.
11415
Historically, the ''Britannica's authors have included eminent authorities, such as
Albert Einstein,
Marie Curie and
Leon Trotsky. However, some of its contributors have been criticised for their lack of expertise:
[31]
Opinionatedness
Various authorities ranging from
Virginia Woolf to academic professors have criticised the ''Britannica'' for having
bourgeois and old-fashioned opinions on art, literature and social sciences.
[32] For example, the 11th edition was faulted for neglecting the work of
Sigmund Freud. A contemporary
Cornell professor,
Edward B. Titchener, wrote, "the new ''Britannica'' does not reproduce the psychological atmosphere of its day and generation… Despite the halo of authority, and despite the scrutiny of the staff, the great bulk of the secondary articles in general psychology … are not adapted to the requirements of the intelligent reader."
[33]
Editorial choices
The ''Britannica'' is occasionally criticised for its editorial choices. Given its roughly constant size, the encyclopaedia has needed to reduce or eliminate some topics to accommodate others, resulting in some controversial decisions. The initial 15th edition (1974–1985) was faulted for having drastically reduced or eliminated its coverage of
children's literature,
military decorations, and the French poet
Joachim du Bellay; editorial mistakes were also alleged, such as an inconsistent sorting of Japanese biographies.
34 Its elimination of the index was condemned, as was the apparently arbitrary division of articles into the ''
Micropædia'' and ''
Macropædia''.
110 Summing up, one critic called the initial 15th edition a "qualified failure…[that] cares more for juggling its format than for preserving information."
[34] More recently, reviewers from the
American Library Association were surprised to find that most educational articles had been eliminated from the 1992 ''Macropædia'', along with the article on
psychology.
43
''Britannica''-appointed contributors are occasionally mistaken or unscientific. A notorious instance from the ''Britannica's'' early years is the rejection of
Newtonian gravity by
George Gleig, the chief editor of the 3rd edition (1788–1797), who wrote that gravity was caused by the
classical element of fire.
3 In the 11th edition (1911), an article on
poltergeists, a then-popular topic of superstition, suggests: "there remains the chance that some agency of an unexplored nature is, at least in certain cases, actually at work."
[35] However, the ''Britannica'' has also staunchly defended a scientific approach to emotional topics, as it did with
William Robertson Smith's articles on religion in the 9th edition, particularly his article stating that the
Bible was not historically accurate (1875).
3
Racism and sexism in prior editions
By modern standards, past editions of the ''Britannica'' have been marred by racism and sexism.
32 The 11th edition characterises the
Ku Klux Klan as protecting the white race and restoring order to the
American South after the
American Civil War, citing the need to "control the negro", to "prevent any intermingling of the races" and "the frequent occurrence of the crime of rape by negro men upon white women."
[36][37] Similarly, the article on ''Civilization'' argues for
eugenics, stating that it is irrational to "propagate low orders of intelligence, to feed the ranks of paupers, defectives and criminals … which to-day constitute so threatening an obstacle to racial progress."
[38] The 11th edition has no biography of
Marie Curie, despite her winning of the
Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 and the
Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911, although she is mentioned briefly under the biography of her husband
Pierre Curie.
[39] The ''Britannica'' employed a large female editorial staff that wrote hundreds of articles for which they were not given credit.
32
Inaccuracy
In 1912 mathematician
L. C. Karpinski criticised the ''
Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition'' for its many inaccuracies in the articles on the
history of mathematics, none of which had been written by specialists in the field.
[40] In 1917, art critic
Willard Huntington Wright published a book, ''Misinforming a Nation'',
[41] that highlighted inaccuracies and English biases of the ''Eleventh Edition'', particularly in the humanities articles. Many of Wright's criticisms were addressed in later editions of the ''Britannica''. However, his book was denounced as a polemic by some contemporary reviewers; for example, the ''
New York Times'' wrote that a "spiteful and shallow temper…pervades the book," while ''
The New Republic'' opined, "it is unfortunate for Mr. Wright's remorseless purpose that he has proceeded in an unscientific spirit and given so little objective justification of his criticism."
3 Another critic, English writer and former priest
Joseph McCabe, claimed that the ''Britannica'' was susceptible to editorial pressure from the
Roman Catholic Church in his book, ''Lies And Fallacies Of The Encyclopedia Britannica'' (1947).
[42]
The ''Britannica'' has always conceded that errors are inevitable in an encyclopaedia. Speaking of the 3rd edition (1788–1797), its chief editor
George Gleig wrote that "perfection seems to be incompatible with the nature of works constructed on such a plan, and embracing such a variety of subjects." More recently (March 2006), the ''Britannica'' wrote that "we in no way mean to imply that ''Britannica'' is error-free; we have never made such a claim."
87 The sentiment is expressed by its original editor,
William Smellie.
Present status
15th edition of the ''Britannica''. The initial volume with the green spine is the ''Propædia;'' the red-spined and black-spined volumes are the ''Micropædia'' and the ''Macropædia,'' respectively. The last three volumes are the 2002 Book of the Year (black spine) and the two-volume index (cyan spine).
2007 print version
Since 1985, the ''Britannica'' has had four parts: the ''
Micropædia,'' the ''
Macropædia,'' the ''
Propædia,'' and a two-volume index. The ''Britannica's articles are found in the ''Micro-'' and ''Macropædia,'' which encompass 12 and 17 volumes, respectively, each volume having roughly one thousand pages. The 2007 ''Macropædia'' has 699 in-depth articles, ranging in length from 2 to 310 pages and having references and named contributors. In contrast, the 2007 ''Micropædia'' has roughly 65,000 articles, the vast majority (about 97%) of which contain fewer than 750 words, no references, and no named contributors.
15 The ''Micropædia'' articles are intended for quick fact-checking and to help in finding more thorough information in the ''Macropædia''. The ''Macropædia'' articles are meant both as authoritative, well-written articles on their subjects and as storehouses of information not covered elsewhere.
1 The longest article (310 pages) is on the
United States, and resulted from the merger of the articles on the individual
states.
Information can be found in the ''Britannica'' by following the cross-references in the ''Micropædia'' and ''Macropædia''; however, these are sparse, averaging one cross-reference per page.
14 Hence, readers are recommended to consult instead the alphabetical index or the ''Propædia,'' which organises the ''Britannica's contents by topic.
5
The core of the ''Propædia'' is its "Outline of Knowledge," which aims to provide a logical framework for all human knowledge.
4 Accordingly, the Outline is consulted by the ''Britannica's editors to decide which articles should be included in the ''Micro-'' and ''Macropædia''.
4 The Outline is also intended to be a study guide, to put subjects in their proper perspective, and to suggest a series of ''Britannica'' articles for the student wishing to learn a topic in depth.
4 However, libraries have found that it is scarcely used, and reviewers have recommended that it be dropped from the encyclopedia.
[43] The ''Propædia'' also has color transparencies of human anatomy and several appendices listing the staff members, advisors, and contributors to all three parts of the Britannica.
Taken together, the ''Micropædia'' and ''Macropædia'' comprise roughly 40 million words and 24,000 images.
5 The two-volume index has 2,350 pages, listing the 228,274 topics covered in the ''Britannica,'' together with 474,675 subentries under those topics.
14 The ''Britannica'' generally prefers
British spelling over
American;
14 for example, it uses ''colour'' (not ''color''), ''centre'' (not ''center''), and ''encyclopaedia'' (not ''encyclopedia''). However, there are exceptions to this rule, such as ''defense'' rather than ''defence''.
[44] Common alternative spellings are provided with cross-references such as "Color: ''see'' Colour."
Since 1936, the articles of the ''Britannica'' have been revised on a regular schedule, with at least 10% of them considered for revision each year.
1429 According to one Britannica web-site, 46% of its articles were revised over the past three years;
[45] however, according to another Britannica web-site, only 35% of the articles were revised.
[46]
The alphabetisation of articles in the ''Micropædia'' and ''Macropædia'' follows strict rules.
[47] Diacritical marks and non-English letters are ignored, while numerical entries such as "
1812, War of" are alphabetised as if the number had been written out ("Eighteen-twelve, War of"). Articles with identical names are ordered first by persons, then by places, then by things. Rulers with identical names are organised first alphabetically by country and then by chronology; thus,
Charles III of
France precedes
Charles I of England, listed in ''Britannica'' as the ruler of Great Britain and Ireland. Similarly, places that share names are organised alphabetically by country, then by ever-smaller political divisions.
Related printed material
There are several abbreviated ''Britannica'' encyclopedias. The single-volume ''Britannica Concise Encyclopædia'' has 28,000 short articles condensing the larger 32-volume ''Britannica''.
[48] ''Compton's by Britannica,'' which incorporates the former ''
Compton's Encyclopedia,'' is aimed at adolescents ages 10–17 and consists of 26 volumes and 11,000 pages.
[49] Other products include ''My First Britannica'', aimed at children ages six to twelve, and the ''Britannica Discovery Library'', written for children ages three to six.
[50] Since 1938,
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. has published annually a ''Book of the Year'' covering the past year's events, which is available online back to the 1994 edition (covering the events of 1993). The company also publishes several specialized reference works, such as ''Shakespeare: The Essential Guide to the Life and Works of the Bard'' (Wiley, 2006).
Optical disc and online and mobile versions
Encyclopædia Britannica 2005 Deluxe Edition
CD-ROM.
The ''Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite 2006 DVD'' contains over 55 million words and just over 100,000 articles.
[51] This includes 73,645 regular ''Britannica'' articles, with the remainder drawn from the ''Britannica Student Encyclopædia,'' the ''Britannica Elementary Encyclopædia'' and the ''Britannica Book of the Year'' (1993–2004), plus a few "classic" articles from early editions of the encyclopaedia. The package includes a range of supplementary content including maps, videos, sound clips, animations and web links. It also offers study tools and dictionary and thesaurus entries from
Merriam-Webster.
''
Encyclopædia Britannica Online'' is a
Web site with more than 120,000 articles and is updated regularly.
[52] It has daily features, updates and links to news reports from ''
The New York Times'' and the
BBC. Subscriptions are available on a yearly, monthly or weekly basis.
[53] Special subscription plans are offered to schools, colleges and libraries; such institutional subscribers constitute an important part of Britannica's business. Articles may be accessed online for free, but only a few opening lines of text are displayed. Beginning in early 2007, the ''Britannica'' made articles freely available if they are linked to from an external site;
[54] such external links often improve an article's
rankings in
search engine results.
On
20 February 2007, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. announced that it was working with
mobile phone search company
AskMeNow to launch a mobile encyclopedia.
[55] Users will be able to send a question via
text message, and AskMeNow will search ''Britannica's 28,000-article concise encyclopedia to return an answer to the query. Daily topical features sent directly to users' mobile phones are also planned.
Personnel and management
Contributors
The 2007 print version of the ''Britannica'' boasts 4,411 contributors, with many eminent in their fields, such as Nobel Laureate economist
Milton Friedman, astronomer
Carl Sagan, and surgeon
Michael DeBakey.
[56] Roughly a quarter of the contributors are deceased, some as long ago as 1947 (
Alfred North Whitehead), while another quarter are retired or
emeritus. Most (approximately 98%) contribute to only a single article; however, 64 contributed to three articles, 23 contributed to four articles, 10 contributed to five articles, and 8 contributed to more than five articles. An exceptionally prolific contributor is Dr.
Christine Sutton of the
University of Oxford, who contributed 24 articles on
particle physics.
Staff
Dale Hoiberg, a
sinologist, is currently the ''Britannica's'' Senior Vice President and editor-in-chief.
[57] Among his predecessors as editors-in-chief were
Hugh Chisholm (1902–1924),
James Louis Garvin (1926–1932),
Franklin Henry Hooper (1902–1938),
Walter Yust (1938–1960),
Harry Ashmore (1960–1963),
Warren E. Preece (1964–1968, 1969–1975), Sir
William Haley (1968–1969),
Philip W. Goetz (1979–1991),
1 and
Robert McHenry (1992–1997).
[58] Anita Wolff and
Theodore Pappas serve as the current Deputy Editor and Executive Editor, respectively.
57 Prior Executive Editors include
John V. Dodge (1950–1964) and
Philip W. Goetz.
The ''Britannica'' maintains an editorial staff of five Senior Editors and nine Associate Editors, supervised by
Dale Hoiberg and four others. The editorial staff help in authoring the articles of the ''
Micropædia'' and some sections of the ''
Macropædia''.
[59]
Editorial advisors
The ''Britannica'' has an Editorial Board of Advisors, which currently includes 14 distinguished scholars:
[60][61]
★ former
Ecuadorian president
Rosalía Arteaga,
★ Physiology/Medicine Nobel laureate
David Baltimore,
★ religion scholar
Wendy Doniger,
★ political economist
Benjamin M. Friedman,
★
Council on Foreign Relations President Emeritus
Leslie H. Gelb,
★ Physics Nobel laureate
Murray Gell-Mann,
★
Carnegie Corporation of New York President
Vartan Gregorian,
★
Pritzker Architecture Prize winner
Zaha Hadid,
★
American Civil War historian
James M. McPherson,
★ philosopher
Thomas Nagel,
★ cognitive scientist
Donald Norman,
★ musicologist
Don Michael Randel,
★ economist
Amartya Sen, and
★
Stewart Sutherland, Baron Sutherland of Houndwood and a
Knight of the Thistle.
The ''
Propædia'' and its ''Outline of Knowledge'' were produced by dozens of editorial advisors under the direction of
Mortimer J. Adler.
[62] Roughly half of these advisors have since died, including some of the Outline's chief architects:
Rene Dubos (d. 1982),
Loren Eiseley (d. 1977),
Harold D. Lasswell (d. 1978),
Mark Van Doren (d. 1972),
Peter Ritchie Calder (d. 1982) and
Mortimer J. Adler (d. 2001). The ''Propædia'' also lists just under 4,000 advisors who were consulted for the unsigned ''
Micropædia'' articles.
[63]
Corporate structure
In January 1996, the ''Britannica'' was purchased from the
Benton Foundation by
billionaire Swiss financier
Jacqui Safra,
[64] who serves as its current Chairman of the Board. In 1997,
Don Yannias, a long-time associate and investment advisor of Safra, became
CEO of
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.[55] A new company,
Britannica.com Inc. was
spun off in 1999 to develop the digital versions of the ''Britannica''; Yannias assumed the role of CEO in the new company, while that of Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. remained vacant for two years. Yannias' tenure at
Britannica.com Inc. was marked by missteps, large lay-offs and financial losses.
[66] In 2001, Yannias was replaced by
Ilan Yeshua, who reunited the leadership of the two companies.
[55] Yannias later returned to investment management, but remains on the ''Britannica's''
Board of Directors.
In 2003, former management consultant
Jorge Aguilar-Cauz was appointed President of
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Cauz is the senior executive and reports directly to the ''Britannica's'' Board of Directors. Despite his subdued and scholarly manner, Cauz has been aggressively pursuing alliances with other companies and extending the ''Britannica'' brand to new educational and reference products, continuing the strategy pioneered by former CEO
Elkan Harrison Powell in the mid-1930s.
[68]
Under Safra's ownership, the company has experienced financial difficulties, and has responded by reducing the price of its products and implementing drastic cost cuts. According to a 2003 report in the ''
New York Post'', the ''Britannica'' management has eliminated employee
401(k) accounts and encouraged the use of free images. These changes have had negative impacts, as freelance contributors have waited up to six months for checks and the ''Britannica'' staff have gone years without pay rises.
[69]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. now owns registered
trademarks on the words ''Britannica'', ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', ''Macropædia'', ''Micropædia'', and ''Propædia'', as well as on its
thistle logo. It has exercised its trademark rights as recently as 2005.
[70][71]
Competition
As the ''Britannica'' is a general encyclopaedia, it does not seek to compete with specialised encyclopaedias such as the ''
Encyclopaedia of Mathematics'' or the ''
Dictionary of the Middle Ages'', which can devote much more space to their chosen topics. In its first years, the ''Britannica's main competitor was the general encyclopaedia of
Ephraim Chambers and, soon thereafter, ''
Rees's Cyclopaedia'' and
Coleridge's ''
Encyclopaedia Metropolitana''. In the 20th century, successful competitors included ''
Collier's Encyclopedia,'' the ''
Encyclopedia Americana,'' and the ''
World Book Encyclopedia''. Each of these encyclopaedias has qualities that make it outstanding, such as exceptionally clear writing or superb illustrations. Nevertheless, from the 9th edition onwards, the ''Britannica'' was widely considered to have the greatest authority of any general English language encyclopaedia,
32 especially because of its superlatively broad coverage and eminent authors.
114 However, the print version of the ''Britannica'' is significantly more expensive than its competitors.
114
Since the early 1990s, the ''Britannica'' has faced new challenges from digital information sources. The Internet, facilitated by the development of
search engines, has grown into a common source of information for many people, and provides easy access to reliable original sources and expert opinions, thanks in part to initiatives such as
Google Books,
MIT's
release of its educational materials and the open
PubMed Central library of the
National Library of Medicine.
[72][73] In general, the Internet tends to provide more current coverage than print media, due to the ease with which material on the Internet can be updated.
[74] In rapidly changing fields such as science, technology, politics, culture and modern history, the ''Britannica'' has struggled to stay up-to-date, a problem first analysed systematically by its former editor
Walter Yust.
12 Although the ''Britannica'' is now available both in multimedia form and over the Internet, its preeminence is being challenged by other online encyclopaedias, such as ''
Encarta'' and
Wikipedia.
Print encyclopedias
The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' has been compared with other print encyclopaedias, both qualitatively and quantitatively.
11415 A well-known comparison is that of
Kenneth Kister, who gave a qualitative and quantitative comparison of the ''Britannica'' with two comparable encyclopaedias, ''
Collier's Encyclopedia'' and the ''
Encyclopedia Americana''.
For the ''quantitative'' analysis, ten articles were selected at random (
circumcision,
Charles Drew,
Galileo,
Philip Glass,
heart disease,
IQ,
panda bear,
sexual harassment,
Shroud of Turin and
Uzbekistan) and letter grades (A–D, F) were awarded in four categories: coverage, accuracy, clarity, and recency. In all four categories and for all three encyclopaedias, the four average grades fell between
B− and B+, chiefly because not one encyclopaedia had an article on
sexual harassment in 1994. In the accuracy category, the ''Britannica'' received one ''D'' and eight ''A''s. ''Encyclopedia Americana'' received eight ''A''s, and ''Collier's'' received one ''D'' and seven ''A''s; thus, ''Britannica'' received an average score of 92% for accuracy to ''Americana''’s 95% and ''Collier's''’ 92%. The 1994 ''Britannica'' was faulted for publishing an inflammatory story about
Charles Drew that had long been discredited. In the timeliness category, ''Britannica'' averaged an 86% to ''Americana''’s 90% and ''Collier's''’ 85%. After a more thorough ''qualitative'' comparison of all three encyclopedias,
Kister recommended ''
Collier's Encyclopedia'' as the superior encyclopaedia, primarily on the strength of its excellent writing, balanced presentation and easy navigation.
Digital encyclopedias on optical media
''
Encarta'' is one of the main competitors of the ''Britannica''. It was first published on a multimedia CD-ROM in 1993, two years ahead of the ''Britannica'', and has remained ahead in retail sales.
The most notable competitor of the ''Britannica'' among CD/DVD-ROM digital encyclopedias is ''
Encarta'',
78 a modern, multimedia encyclopedia that incorporates three print encyclopedias: ''
Funk and Wagnalls''', ''
Collier's'' and the ''
New Merit Scholar''. ''
Encarta'' is the top-selling multimedia encyclopaedia, based on total U.S. retail sales from January 2000 to February 2006.
[75] Both occupy the same price range, with the 2007 Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate CD or DVD costing
US$50
[76] and the Microsoft Encarta Premium 2007 DVD costing
US$45.
[77] The ''Britannica'' contains 100,000 articles and ''
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary and Thesaurus'' (U.S. only), and offers Primary and Secondary School editions.
''Encarta'' contains 66,000 articles, a user-friendly Visual Browser, interactive maps, math, language and homework tools, a U.S. and U.K. dictionary, and a youth edition.
Like ''Encarta'', the ''Britannica'' has been criticised for being biased towards
United States audiences; the
United Kingdom-related articles are updated less often, maps of the United States are more detailed than those of other countries, and it lacks a U.K. dictionary.
[78] Like the ''Britannica'', ''
Encarta'' is available online by subscription, although some content may be accessed for free.
[79]
Internet encyclopedias
Online alternatives to the ''Britannica'' include
Wikipedia, a freely available
Web-based
free-content encyclopedia. Wikipedia receives roughly 450 times more traffic than the online version of the ''Britannica'', based on independent page-view statistics gathered by
Alexa in the first three months of 2007.
[80] Judging from recent statistics on the number of articles or words, the English-language Wikipedia is over 20 times larger than the ''Britannica''.
[81]
A key difference between the two encyclopaedias lies in article authorship. The 699 ''
Macropædia'' articles are generally written by identified contributors, and the roughly 65,000 ''
Micropædia'' articles are the work of the editorial staff and identified outside consultants. Thus, a ''Britannica'' article either has known authorship or a set of possible authors (the editorial staff). With the exception of the editorial staff, most of the ''Britannica's contributors are experts in their field—some are Nobel laureates.
56 By contrast, the articles of Wikipedia are written by a community of editors with varying levels of expertise: most editors do not claim any particular expertise; of those who do, many are
anonymous and have no verifiable credentials.
[82][83] Another difference is the pace of article change: the ''Britannica'' is published in print every few years, while Wikipedia's articles are likely to change frequently.
Wikipedia has been criticised in other respects as well,
[84] and it has been argued
[85] that Wikipedia cannot hope to rival the ''Britannica'' in
accuracy.
On
14 December 2005, the scientific journal ''
Nature'' reported that, within 42 randomly selected general science articles, there were 162 mistakes in Wikipedia versus 123 in ''Britannica''.
[86] In its detailed 20-page rebuttal,
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. characterized ''Nature's study as flawed and misleading
[87] and called for a "prompt" retraction. It noted that two of the articles in the study were taken from a ''Britannica'' year book, and not the encyclopedia; another two were from ''Compton's Encyclopedia'' (called the ''Britannica Student Encyclopedia'' on the company's web site). The rebuttal went on to mention that some of the articles presented to reviewers were combinations of several articles, and that other articles were merely excerpts but were penalized for factual omissions. The company also noted that several facts classified as errors by ''Nature'' were minor spelling variations, and that several of its alleged errors were matters of interpretation. ''Nature'' defended its story and declined to retract, stating that, as it was comparing Wikipedia with the web version of Britannica, it used whatever relevant material was available on Britannica's website.
[55]
Edition summary
Main articles: History of the Encyclopædia Britannica
| Edition/supplement | Publication years | Size | Chief editor(s) | Notes |
|---|
| 1st | 1768–1771 | 3 volumes, 2,670 pages, 160 plates | William Smellie | Largely the work of one editor, Smellie; 30 articles longer than three pages |
|---|
| 2nd | 1777–1784 | 10 volumes, 8,595 pages, 340 plates | James Tytler | 150 long articles; pagination errors; all maps under "Geography" article |
|---|
| 3rd | 1788–1797 | 18 volumes, 14,579 pages, 542 plates | Colin Macfarquhar and George Gleig | 42,000 pounds profit on 10,000 copies sold; introduction of chemical symbols |
|---|
| supplement to 3rd | 1801 | 2 volumes, 1,624 pages, 50 plates | George Gleig | Copyright owned by Thomas Bonar, first dedication to monarch |
|---|
| 4th | 1801–1809 | 20 volumes, 16,033 pages, 581 plates | James Millar | Authors first allowed to retain copyright |
|---|
| 5th | 1817 | 20 volumes, 16,017 pages, 582 plates | James Millar | Financial losses by Millar and Andrew Bell's heirs; EB rights sold to Archibald Constable |
|---|
| supplement to 5th | 1816–1824 | 6 volumes, 4,933 pages, 125 plates1 | Macvey Napier | Famous contributors recruited, such as Sir Humphry Davy, Sir Walter Scott, Malthus |
|---|
| 6th | 1820–1823 | 20 volumes | Charles Maclaren | Constable went bankrupt on 19 January 1826; EB rights eventually secured by Adam Black |
|---|
| 7th | 1830–1842 | 21 volumes, 17,101 pages, 506 plates, 187-page index | Macvey Napier, assisted by James Browne, LLD | Widening network of famous contributors, such as Sir David Brewster, Thomas de Quincey, Antonio Panizzi |
|---|
| 8th | 1853–1860 | 21 volumes, 17,957 pages, 402 plates; separate 239-page index, published 18612 | Thomas Stewart Traill | Many long articles were copied from the 7th edition; 344 contributors including William Thomson |
|---|
| 9th | 1875–1889 | 24 volumes, plus one index volume | Thomas Spencer Baynes (1875–80); then W. Robertson Smith | Some carry-over from 8th edition, but mostly a new work; high point of scholarship; pirated widely in the U.S.3 |
|---|
10th,
supplement to 9th | 1902–1903 | 11 volumes, plus the 24 volumes of the 9th4 | Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace and Hugh Chisholm in London; Arthur T. Hadley & Franklin Henry Hooper in New York City | American partnership bought EB rights on 9 May 1901; high-pressure sales methods |
|---|
| 11th | 1910–1911 | 28 volumes, plus one index volume | Hugh Chisholm in London, Franklin Henry Hooper in New York City | Another high point of scholarship and writing; more articles than the 9th, but shorter and simpler; financial difficulties for owner, Horace Everett Hooper; EB rights sold to Sears Roebuck in 1920 |
|---|
12th,
supplement to 11th | 1921–1922 | 3 volumes, plus the 28 volumes of the 11th5 | Hugh Chisholm in London, Franklin Henry Hooper in New York City | Summarized state of the world before, during, and after World War I |
|---|
13th,
supplement to 11th | 1926 | 3 volumes, plus the 28 volumes of the 11th6 | James Louis Garvin in London, Franklin Henry Hooper in New York City | Replaced 12th edition volumes; improved perspective of the events of 1910–1926 |
|---|
| 14th | 1929–1933 | 24 volumes 7 | James Louis Garvin in London, Franklin Henry Hooper in New York City | Publication just before Great Depression was financially catastrophic |
|---|
| revised 14th | 1933–1973 | 24 volumes 7 | Franklin Henry Hooper until 1938; then Walter Yust, Harry Ashmore, Warren E. Preece, William Haley | Began continuous revision in 1936: every article revised at least twice every decade |
|---|
| 15th | 1974–1984 | 30 volumes 8 | Warren E. Preece, then Philip W. Goetz | Introduced three-part structure; division of articles into ''Micropædia'' and ''Macropædia''; ''Propædia'' Outline of Knowledge; separate index eliminated |
|---|
| 1985–present | 32 volumes 9 | Philip W. Goetz, then Robert McHenry, currently Dale Hoiberg | Restored two-volume index; merged ''Micropædia'' and ''Macropædia'' articles; slightly longer overall; new versions issued every few years |
| 'Edition notes'1''Supplement to the fourth, fifth, and sixth editions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. With preliminary dissertations on the history of the sciences.''2 The 8th to 14th editions included a separate index volume.3 The 9th edition featured articles by notables of the day, such as James Maxwell on electricity and magnetism, and William Thomson (who became Lord Kelvin) on heat.4 The 10th edition included a maps volume and a cumulative index volume for the 9th and 10th edition volumes: ''the new volumes, constituting, in combination with the existing volumes of the 9th ed., the 10th ed. … and also supplying a new, distinctive, and independent library of reference dealing with recent events and developments''5 ''Vols. 30–32 … the New volumes constituting, in combination with the twenty-nine volumes of the eleventh edition, the twelfth edition''6 This supplement replaced the previous supplement: ''The three new supplementary volumes constituting, with the volumes of the latest standard edition, the thirteenth edition.''7 This edition was the first to be kept up to date by continual (usually annual) revision.8 The 15th edition (introduced as "Britannica 3") was published in three parts: a 10-volume ''Micropædia'' (which contained short articles and served as an index), a 19-volume ''Macropædia'', plus the ''Propædia'' (see text). It was reorganised in 1985 to have 12 and 17 volumes in the ''Micro-'' and ''Macropædia''.9 In 1985, the system was modified by adding a separate two-volume index; the ''Macropædia'' articles were further consolidated into fewer, larger ones (for example, the previously separate articles about the 50 U.S. states were all included into the "United States of America" article), with some medium-length articles moved to the ''Micropædia''.The first CD-ROM edition was issued in 1994. At that time also an online version was offered for paid subscription. In 1999 this was offered for free, and no revised print versions appeared. The experiment was ended in 2001 and a new printed set was issued in 2002. |
References
1. Kister's Best Encyclopedias: A Comparative Guide to General and Specialized Encyclopedias, , KF, Kister, Oryx Press, 1994, ISBN 0-89774-744-5
2.
3. {{cite book | last = Kogan | first = Herman | year = 1958 | title = The Great EB: The Story of the Encyclopædia Britannica | publisher = The University of Chicago Press | location = Chicago | id =
4. The New Encyclopædia Britannica, , , , , 2007,
5. The New Encyclopædia Britannica, , , , , 2007,
6. Encyclopaedia Britannica changes to survive
7. How the Scots Invented the Modern World, , Arthur, Herman, Three Rivers Press, 2002, ISBN 978-0609809990
8. {{cite encyclopedia |last=Krapp |first=Philip |coauthors=Balou, Patricia K. |year=1992 |title=Collier's Encyclopedia |volume=9 |pages=p. 135 |publisher=Macmillan Educational Company |location=New York |id= The ''Britannica's'' 1st edition is described as "deplorably inaccurate and unscientific" in places.
9. Mortimer J. Adler, ''A Guidebook to Learning: for the lifelong pursuit of wisdom''. MacMillan Publishing Company, New York, 1986. p.88
10. A New Britannica Is Born John F. Baker
★ Britannica 3, History of Geoffrey Wolff
★ Britannica 3 as a Reference Tool: A Review Dorothy Ethlyn Cole
★ Subject: The Universe Robert Gorham Davis
★ The Guest Word Robert G. Hazo
★ The Scandal of 'Britannica 3' Samuel McCracken
★ Encyclopaedia Britannica: EB 3, Two Years Later Dennis V. Waite
★ Britannica 3, Failures of Geoffrey Wolff
11. Encyclopædia Britannica, , , , , 1910,
12. Encyclopædia Britannica, , , , , 1954,
13. The New Encyclopædia Britannica, , , , , ,
14. Encyclopedias, Atlases, and Dictionaries, , Marian, Sader, R. R. Bowker (A Reed Reference Publishing Company), 1995, ISBN 0-8352-3669-2
15. Purchasing an Encyclopedia: 12 Points to Consider, , , , Booklist Publications, American Library Association, 1996, ISBN 0-8389-7823-1
16. Dobson's Encyclopaedia: The Publisher, Text, and Publication of America's First Britannica, 1789–1803, , Robert D., Arner, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991,
17. Patriarch Revised
18. A Completely New Encyclopaedia (''sic'') Britannica
19. Banquet at Guildhall in the City of London, Tuesday 15 October 1968: Celebrating the 200th Anniversary of the Encyclopædia Britannica and the 25th Anniversary of the Honorable William Benton as its Chairman and Publisher, , , , Encyclopædia Britannica International, Ltd., 1968,
20. Reader
21. 2005 CODiE Award Winners: Content Categories
22. 2006 Codie Award Finalists: Content Categories
23. 2004 Distinguished Achievement Awards Winners: Technology
24. 2001 Codie Awards Winners
25. 2002 Codie Awards Winners
26. Reference Sources for Small and Medium-Sized Libraries, , JP, Lang, American Library Association, 1992,
27. The New Encyclopædia Britannica, , , , , 2007, See also the list of 2007 Macropædia articles.
28. According to Kister (1994, reference 1 above), the initial 15th edition (1974) required over million dollars to produce.
29. Aside from providing an excellent summary of the ''Britannica's'' history and early spin-off products, this article also describes the life-cycle of a typical ''Britannica'' edition. A new edition typically begins with strong sales that gradually decay as the encyclopedia becomes outdated. When work on a new edition is begun, word leaks out and sales of the old edition effectively stop, just at the time when the fiscal needs are greatest: a new editorial staff must be assembled, articles commissioned, etc. Elkan Harrison Powell identified this cyclic fluctuation of income as a key danger to the fiscal health of any encyclopaedia, one that he hoped to overcome with his innovative policy of continuous revision.
30. The Myth of the Britannica, , Harvey, Einbinder, Grove Press, 1964, ISBN 978-0384140509
31. The Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General Information, , George L., Burr, American Historical Review, 1911
32. A Position to Command Respect: Women and the Eleventh Britannica, , Gillian, Thomas, Scarecrow Press, 1992, ISBN 0-8108-2567-8
33. The Psychology of the new 'Britannica', , EB, Titchener, American Journal of Psychology, 1912
34. The Fifteenth Britannica, , Peter S., Prescott, Newsweek,
35. Poltergeist Encyclopædia Britannica
36. Lynch Law Encyclopædia Britannica
37. Ku Klux Klan Encyclopædia Britannica
38. Civilization Encyclopædia Britannica
39. Pierre Curie Encyclopædia Britannica
40. History of Mathematics in the Recent Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, , L. C., Karpinski, Science, 1912
41. Misinforming a Nation, , WH (pen-name S. S. Van Dine), Wright, B. W. Huebsch, 1917, ASIN B000861CHG
42. Lies And Fallacies Of The Encyclopedia Britannica, , J, McCabe, Haldeman-Julius, 1947, ASIN B0007FFJF4
43. Purchasing an Encyclopedia: 12 Points to Consider, , , , Booklist Publications, American Library Association, 1992, ISBN 0-8389-5754-4
44.
45. Encyclopædia Britannica: School & Library Site, promotional materials for the 2007 ''Britannica''
46. Australian Encyclopædia Britannica, promotional materials for the 2007 ''Britannica''
47. The New Encyclopædia Britannica, , , , , 2007,
48. 2003 Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
49. 2007 Compton's by Britannica
50. Britannica Discovery Library (issued 1974–1991)
51. 2007 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD
52. Britannica Online
53. Britannica Online Store—BT Click&Buy
54. Instructions for linking to the ''Britannica'' articles
55.
56. The New Encyclopædia Britannica, , , , , 2007,
57. The New Encyclopædia Britannica, , , , , 2007,
58. History of Encyclopædia Britannica and Britannica Online
59.
60. The New Encyclopædia Britannica, , , , , 2007,
61. Encyclopædia Britannica Board of Editors. Britannica.com. Retrieved on 2006-09-27
62. The New Encyclopædia Britannica, , , , , 2007,
63. The New Encyclopædia Britannica, , , , , 2007,
64. Britannica sold by Benton Foundation
65.
66. Look Under "M" for Mess—Company Business and Marketing, , Ronna, Abramson, The Industry Standard,
67.
68. The New Encyclopædia Britannica, , , , , 2007,
69. Cash-shy Britannica
70. WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center, Case No. D2002-0487, ''Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. v. null John Zuccarini, Country Walk''
71. WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center, Case No. D2005-0865, ''Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. v. Michele Dinoia/SZK.com''
72. Accessibility of information on the web, Lawrence S., Giles C., , , Nature, 1999
73. Searching the Web: general and scientific information access, Lawrence S., Giles C., , , Communications Magazine, IEEE, 1999
74. Electronic publishing takes journals into a new realm
75. Microsoft Encarta—Premium 2007: Overview Sales figures for January 2000 – February 2006 as provided by the NPD Group.
76. The Britannica Store
77. Amazon.com: Microsoft Encarta Premium 2007: Software
78. Encyclopedia face-off: Encarta vs Britannica
79. Encarta's Encyclopedia Article Center
80. Web-traffic data for Wikipedia
81. Statistics for the English-language Wikipedia
82. Total number of users of the English-language Wikipedia
83. Giles, Jim (2005-12-15). "Challenges of being a Wikipedian" In: "Internet encyclopaedias go head to head". ''Nature'' 438: 900–901. . Retrieved on 2007-04-11.
84. "A Stand Against Wikipedia", ''Inside Higher Ed'' (January 26 2007). Retrieved on January 27 2007.
85. The Faith-Based Encyclopedia Robert McHenry
86. Internet encyclopedias go head to head, , Jim, Giles, Nature,
87. Fatally Flawed: Refuting the recent study on encyclopedic accuracy by the journal Nature
88.
Further reading
★
The Myth of the Britannica, , Harvey, Einbinder, Grove Press, 1964, ISBN 978-0384140509
★
The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World, , Arnold Stephen, Jr., Jacobs, Simon & Schuster, 2004, ISBN 978-0743250627
★
Kister's Best Encyclopedias: A Comparative Guide to General and Specialized Encyclopedias, , Kenneth F., Kister, Oryx Press, 1994, ISBN 978-0897747448
★
External links
;Official site:
★
''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Online. The official website.
;Historical articles:
★
"Encyclopaedia Britannica". In ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'' Online.
★
1768–2005:l'aventure Britannica. History of the ''Britannica'', from the French Britannica site.
★
History of the ''Britannica'' on ''
The Scotsman's'' Heritage and Culture pages.
★
Vintage Britannica or "Evolving Knowledge". Excerpts on various topics drawn from
various ''Britannica'' editions.
;Earlier editions (in the
public domain in the U.S.A.):
★ to the
1st edition of the ''Britannica'', by
William Smellie.
★
The article "History" in the
3rd edition of the ''Britannica''.
★
Articles and illustrations from the
9th and 10th editions of the ''Britannica''.
★
Scanned version of the
famous 11th edition of the ''Britannica''.
★
Text version of the
famous 11th edition of the ''Britannica''. (Partial)
★
James Mill's essay on "Government", from the
Supplement to the 5th edition of the ''Britannica'' (1820).
;Recent events:
★
Technical aspects of the ''Britannica's'' online and CD/DVD-ROM editions.
★
Britannica disagrees with Wikipedia comparison study.
★
To wire or not to wire? Encyclopædia Britannica vs. Microsoft Encarta
:A comparison of the two encyclopedias by Panagiota Alevizou, published in the ''
Educational Technology & Society'' journal.
;Business history:
★
"Dusting off the Britannica". Article from ''
BusinessWeek'' magazine (1997).
★
"Death of a salesforce". Article from
Salon (1996).
★
"The Work of the Encyclopedia in the Age of Electronic Reproduction". Article by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang in ''
First Monday''.
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