Submitted November 28    

     As my group members and I collaborated to review the list of encyclopedias, one trend stood out: most libraries are abandoning the print versions of encyclopedias in favor of online versions.  There are many advantages to adopting online sources.  For example, they do not take up shelf space.  Similarly, oftentimes the online version has more to offer users, with features such as daily current events, links to other informative websites, and more visual images.  It was not until I sat down to do this assignment and tested a variety of such that I gained a complete understanding of the value of an online encyclopedia.

             I investigated the online version of New Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopeadia Britannica Online, a resource available at the Wheaton College Library.  I had known from my initial evaluation that Wheaton College does not house a print version; however, I was intrigued by what I had seen of the online version during the first evaluation process.  Therefore, I thought it would be an interesting resource to evaluate further.

            I had learned from my initial evaluation that the Encyclopedia Britannica series was credible.  Printed sets of the series were owned by historical greats such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton.  Furthermore, Encyclopeadia Britannica Online was a Codie Award Finalist for “Best Education Reference or Search Service” and a Codie Award Winner for “Best Online Consumer Information Service.” Perhaps this is in part because contains over 75,000 articles, 23,000 biographies, over 27,000 images and maps, and links to over 166,000 websites.

            As suggested in the “Evaluating Encyclopedias” handout, I began my investigation by researching a broad topic: abortion. This produced 333 results.  In addition to the title of the article, the results page also contains an excerpt from the article, so users will have an understanding of the material featured in the article prior to selecting it.  Another nice feature of Encyclopeadia Britannica Online (unavailable in print versions is that users can navigate to other links highlighted within the text.

            Since I already had knowledge of this topic, I then decided to investigate a topic with which I was less familiar in order to test whether or not the source provided a clear explanation.  Using the subject browse feature, I came across the topic trisvabhava, which I learned is a Buddhist theory.  Buddhism is an unfamiliar topic to me; however, Encyclopeadia Britannica Online attempts to use a language that is easy to understand.  Further more, explanations of unfamiliar (yet related) terms are provided in parenthesis. 

            The Wheaton College Library does not provide users with access to a CD Rom version of Encyclopeadia Britannica Online; I would surmise that while CD Rom become outdated each, subscribing to the online service would ensure the most accurate information while enabling an infinite number of patrons to benefit from use.

            Prior to concluding this evaluation, I wish to make note of one drawback: while the article provides both MLA and APA style citations, the author of articles is not clear.