Online Encyclopedias have been the accessibility solution to their largely
inaccessible cd rom cousins.  This insightful article explores the future
of these online treasure troves.

kelly





 ONLINE ENCYCLOPEDIAS EVOLVING QUICKLY, BUT NOT ANSWER FOR ALL

   By Mike Langberg
   San Jose Mercury News
   October 30, 2000

   Internet time, at least in the case of encyclopedias, runs 10 times
   faster than normal time.

   Encyclopedias in print arrived more than 200 years ago; the first
   complete version of Encyclopaedia Britannica appeared in Scotland in
   1771. Print encyclopedias aren't extinct yet--there's still a
   lingering market among schools and libraries--but electronic
   encyclopedias have effectively ended sales of print sets to families.

   Encyclopedias on disc--CD-ROM, initially, and now also DVD-ROM--first
   emerged in the early 1990s and, I'm guessing, already have reached
   their peak. There will probably be some withering demand for the rest
   of this decade, but I don't expect encyclopedias on disc will have a
   life span exceeding 20 years--one-tenth that of print.

   The next step is online distribution. I've been following the field
   since 1993, and this transition from print to disc to online has never
   been more obvious.

   The biggest evolutionary leap came a year ago. On Oct. 19, 1999,
   Chicago-based Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc. put the entire text of its
   flagship product--a massive 44 million words--on the Web
   (www.britannica.com) for free through a newly formed subsidiary named
   Britannica.com. Last month, Britannica.com extended access to some
   Sprint mobile phones.

   So is there any reason to pay $69 for the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM version of
   Britannica 2001?

   Perhaps not if you've got a fast Net connection. The encyclopedia on
   disc offers more "multimedia"--photographs, illustration, charts,
   etc.--than you'll get online, but the difference is modest.

   Another big leap came Sept. 1, when Microsoft Corp. unveiled a
   revamped free Web site for its Encarta encyclopedia (www.encarta.com).

   Microsoft says the site offers only part of the text found on disc.
   But I checked more than a half-dozen entries on a variety of subjects,
   comparing what I found on disc to what I found online, and in each
   case the full text on the disc was also online--although not with all
   the multimedia and sidebar articles.

   I suspect Microsoft doesn't want to admit that Encarta's complete text
   is available free online, for fear of hurting disc sales. Also,
   Microsoft might be intending to quietly scale back the online version.

   For now, though, it appears anyone with an Internet connection has a
   free pass to unlimited browsing through two excellent encyclopedias.

   The other two major encyclopedias on disc are taking tentative steps
   into the online era.

   World Book, the classic children's encyclopedia, is available online
   for $49 a year. But it makes more sense to get the deluxe edition on
   CD-ROM for the same $49, because buyers also get a year of free online
   access.

   Grolier, one of the pioneers in CD-ROM, sells online subscriptions to
   schools and libraries. This year's CD-ROM version also gives free
   access to two other online encyclopedias--Encyclopedia Americana for
   older students and the New Book of Knowledge for younger children.

   There's also been one casualty this year: Compton's Interactive
   Encyclopedia, another pioneer in CD-ROM, isn't producing a 2001
   edition. The Learning Co., which owns Compton's, has been through
   several years of turmoil and was just sold by its parent company,
   toymaker Mattel Inc. Compton's had been falling behind the pack in
   quality, probably because Learning Co. couldn't afford to maintain a
   large editorial staff for updating.

   There are still two groups of buyers who should care about what's on
   disc: Those with no Net access or a slow connection--say, 28 kilobits
   per second or less--and those with children in the prime
   encyclopedia-using years--which I place at 8 to 15--who will benefit
   from the extra multimedia material on disc.

   One of the joys in using a CD-ROM encyclopedia, I've found, is
   effortlessly following your curiosity from one topic to another. You
   begin reading the entry on the Grand Canyon and become interested in
   the Colorado River; with one click of the mouse, you can jump to the
   article on the Colorado River, which tells you about Hoover Dam, which
   takes you the entry on Las Vegas, which takes you to the history of
   gambling, etc.

   Such free-floating exploration isn't nearly as fun if you're stuck
   behind a 14.4 modem using an online encyclopedia. And even fast Net
   connections can be unreliable.


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