Overview
The Encyclopedia Americana was first published in 1829 and has been revised and updated annually since 1918. Long a standard in most library reference collections, the Americana is a general encyclopedia containing approximately 45,000 articles contributed by over 6,500 specialists in their respective disciplines. Reading level varies considerably, with some articles accessible to students as low as grade six and others suitable principally for older, more sophisticated readers. Article length ranges from definition-style entries of fewer than 100 words to lengthy essays comprising 25,000 words or more. Longer entries are signed and include bibliographies to print sources. More than two-thirds of the entries in the encyclopedia are linked to related sites on the World Wide Web. Linked sites have been individually evaluated by the editorial staff, and references to them have been carefully validated and annotated, for ready reference. The database also includes over 6,100 bibliographies, 1,000 tables, approximately 3,000 illustrations, 830 geopolitical and historical maps (color), and approximately 270 flags (color).

Reading Audience
Entries in the Encyclopedia Americana are written by specialists for an audience of educated nonspecialists, that is, for readers, many of whom are specialists in their own field, desiring an overview of subjects with which they possess only limited familiarity. No attempt is made to make articles conform to a given style or reading level; rather, it is the subject matter itself-along with the rhetorical power of the author-that are given pride of place in each article. As a result, the Americana is ideal for both students and professional researchers, in fact, for anyone who needs authoritative information-for homework, reports, presentations, background analyses, as context for current events, and so forth-organized and presented with clarity and concision.

Comprehensiveness
Unlike more specialized reference works, a general encyclopedia is judged principally by the breadth and comprehensiveness of its coverage, a feature that makes the Americana ideal for rapid research and fact checking on almost any topic. The goal of the Americana is to present basic information on the broadest possible array of subjects, from the most common to the most arcane, and then to provide the reader with links to more specialized resources through its system of bibliographic citations and hypertext links to sites on the World Wide Web. When viewed in this way, the encyclopedia can be used as a vast index to the larger world of documentation available either in print or online.

Like that of other general encyclopedias, the intellectual organization of the Americana replicates the conceptual map of the world as proposed by the University; in other words, its article categories and hierarchies are informed by core elements of the modern academic curriculum. The Encyclopedia Americana's 45,000 entries are distributed among nine principal subject headings and almost two hundred subheadings, which can be searched either independently or as part of more complex Boolean queries to isolate classes of articles on related subjects, places, and times.

Currency
Currency is at the heart of all good encyclopedias, and the editors of the Americana are committed to providing our readers with the most up-to-date information available in a general reference set. Constrained by print technology, formerly the Americana could publish only 1,500 or so article revisions, on a once-a-year basis, in its printed editions. The advent of the Internet, however, has brought a dramatic change to the way the encyclopedia is maintained. Americana editors now write to the articles in our database daily, and their revisions are posted to the Grolier Online server quarterly. By shortening the time to publication, we have increased annual revisions by as much as 200%, to between 3,000 and 4,500 articles. Web links are added or revised (or in special instances deleted) even more frequently-on a monthly basis or as circumstances dictate. The addition of the Americana Journal has shortened the revision cycle for time-sensitive material to a week or less, bringing a whole new dimension to the definition of an encyclopedia.

Authority
The editors of the Americana are guided in their efforts by an editorial board of approximately seventy senior scholars and specialists in their fields. Members of the advisory board help the editorial staff evaluate standing articles, plan revision programs, and suggest contributors. For 1998, the editorial board includes individuals such as: Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History, Columbia University Sheldon L. Glashow, Mellon Professor of the Sciences, Department of Physics, Harvard University Alan K. Henrikson, Director, the Fletcher Roundtable on a New World Order, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University Richard Martin, Curator, The Costume Institute, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Witold Rybczynski, Martin and Margy Meyerson Professor of Urbanism, Graduate School of Fine Arts, University of Pennsylvania; Professor, Department of Real Estate, Wharton School.

But the single most important factor in the authority of the encyclopedia is the competence of the men and women who write its articles. Contributors to the Americana, who now number in excess of six thousand, are drawn from all academic and professional disciplines and are selected by the editorial staff on the basis of their contributions to the field. Working with the staff editors, they create articles that do not shy away from difficult subject matter but at the same time retain an expository clarity that enables the nonspecialist to immediately come to terms with the topic.

The Americana Journal
A searchable database of current events illustrated with 1,500 timely photographs from The Associated Press. A typical Journal entry contains up to two years' worth of news items, with the most recent item listed first, and is updated weekly for maximum value. Users may search the Journal either by country or by date, giving researchers a way to track trends or recover historical sequences in a fraction of the time it would take to search archives from other news sources. Each Journal entry is linked to the Grolier Internet Index, providing an immediate link to pertinent Web sites.

ENCYCLOPEDIA AMERICANA - TABLE OF FEATURES

Number of Words: 25,000,000
Number of Articles: 45,000
Article Cross-References: 150,000
Contributors: 6,500
Bibliographies: 6,100
Web Links: Over 152,000 from approx. 29,000 articles
Statistical Tables: Over 1,000
Factboxes: 680
Maps: 984
Flags: 275
Images, Art and Photos: 3,000

Update Schedule: Main database: quarterly; Web links: monthly; Journal: Weekly

THE GROLIER ENCYCLOPEDIA

The Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia Online is based on the text of the Academic American Encyclopedia. First published in 1980, the latter quickly established itself as a highly respected reference work, combining unequaled currency with an authoritativeness equal to that of more venerable encyclopedias. The Academic American was the first encyclopedia to make its text available online and was the first to be released on a CD-ROM, which evolved into the Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia.

Purpose
This encyclopedia was created for students at the upper elementary level and in junior high school, high school, or college and for the inquisitive adult. For that audience, it seeks to provide the following:

1. Quick access to definitive factual information

2. Readily intelligible overviews of broad subjects that isolate key concepts, outline the structure of the subject, and link the reader directly to related articles

3. Bibliographies that direct the reader to more specialized sources

4. Extensive multimedia resources-photographs and artwork, maps, and sounds-to enhance the text by additional, complementary audio and visual information

5. Online links to carefully selected Web sites for further exploration of given subjects

Behind these objectives lie guiding principles of comprehensiveness, currency, authoritativeness, objectivity, and ease of use.

Currency
The Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia updates its articles on an ongoing basis to reflect the state of the world and the state of knowledge. Every month, hundreds of new and updated articles are made available online. The encyclopedia not only provides current population and economic statistics, political data, and sports records, it also reports the latest speculations about life on Mars and the course of human evolution. In addition to keeping timeless subjects current in their presentation, the encyclopedia maintains its currency by including numerous articles on contemporary subjects, especially contemporary biographical subjects. It also takes care to note new publications and new Web sites relevant to given articles.

Authority
More than 90 percent of the entries in the Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia have been written by outside scholars and other experts; about 75 percent are signed. The more than 2,600 contributors, from all over the world, were selected on the basis of their specific knowledge and expertise in a particular subject. The Advisory Board of Editors, consisting of senior scholars and academicians, was involved at virtually every stage in the creation of the encyclopedia-from preparing article lists and suggesting possible authors to reviewing articles. Many of the staff editors have advanced degrees, and they bring years of combined experience in reference publishing to bear on their task of ensuring the accuracy, objectivity, and balance of the article coverage.

Comprehensiveness
A comprehensive general encyclopedia must provide basic information for the nonspecialist reader, covering all significant aspects of a subject and providing historical and interpretive context. The content of this encyclopedia is not narrowly focused on the United States and its perspectives; it seeks to expand horizons and introduce the unfamiliar. On the other hand, a sympathetic awareness of non-Western cultures and alternative lifestyles need not interfere with an appreciation that a fuller explication of the roots and traditions of our audience's dominant culture is appropriate.

The Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia contains some 36,000 entries, more than 5,000 of them exclusive to the electronic version. The list of entries reflects the curricula of American schools and universities, but it also contains a myriad of topics of contemporary interest. The relative emphasis among subject disciplines is as follows:

Humanities and the Arts: 36%
art, architecture, sculpture
history
literature and linguistics
music, theater, dance
religion and philosophy

Science and Technology: 35%
astronomy
chemistry
earth sciences
life sciences
mathematics
physics
technology

Social Sciences: 14%
anthropology and archaeology
business and economics
education
government, politics, lay
psychology
sociology

Geography: 13%
Sports and Contemporary Life: 2%

Objectivity
If an encyclopedia is to be reliable, the facts and inferences must be accurate and reflect current scholarship. Scholars may differ among themselves even on questions that do not involve social policy. The aim of this encyclopedia is to provide base information, always to indicate where differences and controversies arise, and to explore them when possible.

Fact Boxes and Tables
The most commonly used information about countries, U.S. states, Canadian provinces, and U.S. presidents is included in fact boxes associated with the relevant articles. In addition, for those seeking quick answers to questions about sports records or-for example-the order of the kings and queens of England, or even more specific questions such as the per-capita water use for different purposes in the United States, the encyclopedia provides hundreds of tables.

Pictures and Sounds
A gallery of almost 7,000 pictures, photographs, and artwork and hundreds of audio and video files.

Research Starters
Research Starters are a student and teacher resource consisting of essays (currently 126) on various topics, followed by suggested research and/or paper topics, a glossary of pertinent terms, creative projects, and links to related articles in the GME for further reading.

Brain Jam
Brain Jam provides learning activities for students to test their knowledge of specific subjects with multiple-choice, interactive quizzes, get background on weekly news stories, and follow a monthly calendar of special events. All activities are closely connected to the Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia Online articles and related Web sites.

Timelines

Among the many valuable features of the Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia Online is a series of information-rich Timelines-ten screen graphics covering the major eras of world history, with icon access to detailed information about noteworthy events, people, ideas, and themes. The Timelines are accessed from the screen header bar.

GROLIER MULTIMEDIA ENCYCLOPEDIA ONLINE - TABLE OF FEATURES

Number Of Words: 11,000,000
Number Of Articles: 38,000
Contributors: 2,900
Bibliographies: 16,600
Article Cross-References: 100,000
Web Links: 55,000 from approx. 11,000 articles
Tables: 300
Fact Boxes: 300
Atlas: 830 maps with over 16,000 links to maps & articles
Flags: 195
Pictures & Line Art: 6,850

Update Schedule: Main database: monthly; Web links: monthly; Brain Jam: monthly; GME News: weekly

The New Book of Knowledge (NBK) has been in print in the United States since 1912. Widely renowned as the first modern encyclopedia for children, NBK has long been the leading source of accurate, accessible, and fun-to-read information for homes and libraries. With its more than 9,000 articles, written by over 1,880 outstanding contributors, and many special enrichment features, NBK has been widely reviewed as the best in its class.

New to the World Wide Web in October 1998, The New Book of Knowledge Online with NBK News takes the print version the next step in its ongoing development. As a fully featured Internet service, the online encyclopedia brings the elements of the print set into the electronic environment, complete with Wonder Questions, facts and figures, projects and experiments, literary selections, and Internet links to carefully evaluated related sites.

As an added bonus to electronic users, NBK Online features a current events site-NBK News. Updated weekly, NBK News includes five NewScoops written especially for the site. Designed to stimulate classroom discussion, each weekly story comes complete with a lesson plan to help the classroom teacher integrate NBK Online into the curriculum.

Content and Reading Level

Entries in The New Book of Knowledge are aimed at students in grades three and up. However, the text supports a wide range of ages and reading levels. Many institutions have found NBK to be perfect for both ESL and inclusion students, since the text is written so as not to "talk down" to older individuals who may be at a less advanced reading level. Indeed, the set excels at presenting complex subjects clearly by breaking them down into understandable components. In preparing articles for NBK, contributors are instructed to aim for a lively and informative tone to engage the reader. The articles are edited by an experienced in-house staff skilled in the presentation of general encyclopedic information for young people.

One of the aims of the staff in this regard is to encourage young people to read and browse the encyclopedia. Multiple search modalities have been developed for the electronic version to assist in this effort. Students can search by word in full-text or article title searches, by subject, and by using simple Boolean operators and wildcards. A browse feature enables browsing of articles-both alphabetically and by subject-and of the encyclopedia's numerous Wonder Questions, projects, and literary selections.

In the NBK News area of the site, all current events stories are written especially for this reading level and are vetted by teachers and educators before being posted to the site. The aim of NBK News is to make the world comprehensible to the young student through news stories that are linked to related encyclopedia articles to provide a depth of coverage that is unparalleled in general reference sources. All stories will be archived on the site for future retrieval after their weekly run is completed.

Comprehensiveness

In over 9,000 articles and nearly 7 million words, The New Book of Knowledge opens the world to the young researcher. The articles in NBK cover topics of general interest as well as every important area of the curriculum. Among the areas covered in depth are literature, language arts, history, government, geography, mathematics, biological and physical sciences, technology, health and safety, art, music, and sports and recreation.

In addition to these curriculum-related content areas, NBK presents opportunities to enrich students' lives. Articles on popular culture, food and cooking, games, clothing and fashion, and hobbies and crafts engage young readers and provide information that is integral to their development as well-rounded individuals. The New Book of Knowledge is known for its unbiased presentation of information. The set takes a responsible, age-appropriate approach to sensitive issues such as abortion, AIDS, ethics, nuclear power safety, and the environment.

Currency

The NBK database is maintained by its own editorial staff at Grolier, supplemented by freelance writers and editors. The print edition is updated yearly, but the database containing the text of the encyclopedia is written to on a daily basis as articles are reviewed, rewritten, and updated. As we enter a period of the explosion of information, frequent updating takes on new importance to our audience. Currently, the electronic encyclopedia is updated on a quarterly basis. This, coupled with the weekly updating of the current events site, will give students the most up-to-date information available in any electronic encyclopedia.

Authority

Contributors to the NBK are carefully screened to ensure a uniform level of quality in the set. They must be recognized experts in their field, with the ability to present information in a manner that can be easily grasped by young people.

NBK's roster of distinguished contributors includes such well-known authorities as historian Stephen Ambrose ("Lewis and Clark Expedition"), science writer Isaac Asimov ("Chemistry"), composer Leonard Bernstein ("Orchestra Conducting"), anthropologist John Bierhorst ("Aztec," "Inca," "Maya"), basketball Hall of Famer Dave DeBusschere ("Basketball"), former surgeon general C. Everett Koop ("Smoking"), author and essayist Jay Saunders Redding ("Slavery"), astronaut Sally Ride ("Astronauts"), journalist Carl T. Rowan ("Propaganda"), and children's author Jane Yolen ("Lullabies").

Functionality

The New Book of Knowledge Online has been designed for ease of use by the youngest researchers. Search stemming is included in the search functionality, a search for dog will get both dog and dogs. Screen design and icons are clear and graphically appealing. Search tips can be accessed from the search screen, and complete search instructions are available in the help pages. The words or character strings used in a full-text search are highlighted and appear in color when they open the article text. Readers can print a portion of a article page using the "Printer Friendly Version" button. A Teacher's Guide provides a helpful overview of the site, reinforces its strong connections to the curriculum, and presents a number of activities to be used in conjunction with NBK News and the resources of the online encyclopedia.

THE NEW BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE - TABLE OF FEATURES

Number of Words: 7,000,000
Number of Articles: 9,000
Article Cross-References: 8,300
Contributors: 1,900
Bibliographies: None
Web Links: 7,000
Tables: 150
Factboxes: 575
Maps: 629
Flags: 254
Art and Photos: 2,500

Update Schedule: Main database: quarterly; Web links: monthly; NBK News: weekly

Cumbre en l�nea is a full-featured, Spanish-language online reference source, and the ONLY Spanish-language encyclopedia built from the ground up with a Latin American perspective. Cumbre en l�nea has the same functionality as Grolier's major reference databases plus the following features:

clear, simple user interface and help screens

more than 15,000 articles

7,500 illustrations, factboxes, tables, maps and flags

thousands of prescreened links to sites related to articles in the encyclopedia

over 15,000 Web links to the encyclopedia's articles, all with titles and brief annotations in Spanish

English-to-Spanish dictionary

Spanish-to-English dictionary

Individual articles are updated quarterly to meet Cumbre's high standards of excellence, and informative, authoritative, and appropriate Web sites are continually identified and linked to the articles--one of the most important features of any online encyclopedia.

THE NEW BOOK OF POPULAR SCIENCE

Since its first printing in 1924, The New Book of Popular Science has been the leading English-language science encyclopedia geared to student readers. Thanks to constant revision and updating, the set's 400 articles, conveniently arranged into scientific categories, provide users with the entire scope of a science-from most general to most specific and most elementary to most complex. Complementing the articles are hundreds of bibliographical references, scores of tables and special feature boxes, and vivid and colorful photographs, maps

The New Book of Popular Science Online goes well beyond a simple Internet adaptation of the print set. The 400 articles that form the site's hub, or SciClopedia, are divided into a dozen categories and are supplemented by such online-only features as Fun Facts and Careers articles. Electronic users will also benefit from NewsBytes, three top-of-the-news science stories, updated weekly and featuring special lesson plans. The New Book of Popular Science Online also offers a weekly stargazer feature called SkyWatch, an interactive question-and-answer column called Ask Pop Sci, and a full line-up of science games, puzzles, and brain teasers in SciZone.

Each week NewsBytes features three stories chosen for their interest to students of science. Each NewsByte is accompanied by a lesson plan for teachers, typically consisting of a study guide, "leading questions" for classroom discussion, and an activity that can be completed in the classroom or assigned as homework. NewsBytes are linked to one or more encyclopedia articles, providing context and background on the news, and contain additional links to appropriate Web sites. NewsBytes from previous weeks are available either in Last Week's Stories or in the Archive, where they are arranged by subject.

SkyWatch presents the heavens of the Northern Hemisphere as they appear during a given hour of the current week. The main page contains a thumbnail image of the night sky and a discussion of the location of the major constellations. Clicking on the thumbnail image takes the reader to a printable sky map oriented to the cardinal directions. The instructions accompanying the map tell how to use it in the field to identify the major constellations and heavenly bodies.

This popular section features questions put to the staff of the encyclopedia by its readers. Three science questions are featured each week

SciZone is home to a host of science-inspired games, puzzles, and brain teasers. Whether used in the classroom or just for fun, these activities encourage logical thinking.

Rounding out The New Book of Popular Science is SciFiles, an extensive grouping of scientific appendices. Through the SciFiles, students have instant access to scientific conversion factors; listings and explanations of scientific variables; mathematical formulas; a complete listing of Nobel Prize winners in chemistry, physics, and physiology or medicine; and hundreds of current bibliographical references, arranged by category. SciFiles has emerged as a reference resource as valuable in some ways to teachers and librarians as it is to students.

Lands and Peoples Online will be a multifaceted Internet site built around Lands and Peoples, Grolier's six-volume encyclopedia of countries, cultures, and geography. The Web site will offer the entirety of the one-million-word Lands and Peoples database within an appealing, highly interactive, and continually updated format.

The site will initially be divided into six main parts:

This feature will include the more than two hundred articles on the continents and countries of the world that currently appear in the print version. Each article will include its own set of internal and external links, photos, map(s), flag(s), and bibliographical references.

A weekly spotlight on three current-events stories that are figuring prominently in the news. Each story will include a special lesson plan that will help establish Lands and Peoples Online as an integral learning tool in the classroom and library environment.

An interactive feature that combines and associates maps, flags, and fact boxes into a singularly enjoyable experience.

Individual articles on each of the U.S. states and Canadian provinces, with each with photos, map(s), flag(s), and fact box. Links in these articles will emphasize local colleges and universities, historical sites, and other topics of particular interest to young users.

Games, puzzles, quizzes, and brain teasers drawing on the myriad concepts that fall under the scope of Lands and Peoples Online.

An appendix-like database featuring dozens of tables, listings, and statistics.

Lands and Peoples Online is currently anticipated to be launched in November 2000 with a full complement of maps and flags; 300 four-color photos; approximately 1,000 external links; and perhaps 3,000 internal links. The site will include complete search and browse options; easy and rapid navigation; help pages; and user's guides.