Evaluation Of Online Encyclopaedias English Language Essay

This report evaluates the capabilities of three online Encyclopaedias: Wikipedia, Free Online Encyclopaedia Britannica and Encyclopaedia Americana. The evaluation is based on the APPARATUS assessment method that are given weights according to their relative importance to search capabilities, contents , used materials references credentials of author(s). The Encyclopaedias are rated based on these the APPARATUS assessment and the ratings tabulated at the end of the report to facilitate comparison.

2. Introduction

In this report, we evaluated the APPARATUS assessment of three online Encyclopaedias : Wikipedia, Free Online Encyclopaedia Britannica and Encyclopaedia Americana. The evaluation focus on the following criteria: ,

Authority & Objectivity 2) Purpose 3) Physical Production 4) Arrangement 5) Recency 6) Accuracy 7) Treatment 8) Users 9) Scope

These criteria were weighed according to their relative importance to APPARATUS assessment . Ratings from 1 to 4 were assigned to respective features and tabulated.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is an online free-content encyclopaedia that users can edit and contribute to.  Jimmy Wales, wikipedia co-founder, has pronounced Wikipedia as “an effort to create and distribute a multilingual free encyclopaedia of the highest quality to every single person on the planet in his or her own language.” Wikipedia is to bring knowledge to everyone who seeks it.

Britannica

Encyclopædia Britannica has been the world’s most valued reference source for over two centuries. Today Britannica provides a variety of products, intended to fit different users’ needs.If users want the full 32-volume Encyclopædia Britannica, an encyclopaedia for younger users, or educational teaching materials, Britannica provides an appropriate resource with features and enhancements.

Encyclopaedia Americana

Americana is one of the largest general encyclopaedias in the English language. Following the acquisition of Grolier in 2000, the encyclopaedia has been produced by Scholastic. It has articles on natural and exact sciences, on engineering and economics, in addition to on separate works of literature, music, and art. Many articles in the encyclopaedia are written from anti-Marxist and anti-communist viewpoints. As a rule it contains instructive articles, but there are also analysis articles most often about separate countries and centuries-for example, the articles “The 18th Century” and “The 20th Century.”

Authority and Objectivity

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is an online free-content encyclopaedia that users can edit and contribute to. Jimmy Wales, wikipedia co-founder, has pronounced Wikipedia as “an effort to create and distribute a multilingual free encyclopaedia of the highest quality to every single person on the planet in his or her own language.” Wikipedia is to bring knowledge to everyone who seeks it. Wikipedia articles are all free content and their text is covered by the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA) and in most cases the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). The Wikimedia Foundation does not own copyright on Wikipedia article texts and illustrations. It is purposeless to email our contact addresses asking for approval to copy articles or images, even if rules at users’ company or school or organization order that user ask web site operators before copying their content. The only Wikipedia content users should contact the Wikimedia Foundation about is the trademarked Wikipedia/Wikimedia logos, which will not be freely usable without permission. Wikipedia is available in languages other than English. Wikipedia has more than two hundred and eighty languages, including a Simple English version, and related projects include a dictionary, books, and scientific reference sources, quotations manuals and a news service (see sister projects). All of these are maintained, updated, and managed by separate communities, and often include information and articles that can be hard to find through other common sources.

Britannica

The editorial board is organized more than four thousand expert contributors, and the articles are written and continuously updated by a hundred full time editors. The authors, compilers, and editors are coming from different backgrounds like Nobel Laureates or Pulitzer Prize winners, expecting writers, artists, civil servants, scholars and activists. Some contributors in the record of the Britannica include Freud, Russell, Marie Curie, Einstein, Huxley and Shaw. Nowadays, the contributors are professors and domain experts in specific areas from Oxford, Harvard, Yale, University of Chicago and other reputable universities. Some contributors introduced their personal negative opinion on topics such as Hinduism so that the articles on Britannica have some cultural bias. A quote of the 11th edition will better help to understand these biases. The 9th edition onwards, the Britannica was widely considered to have the greatest authority of any general English language encyclopaedias especially because of its broad coverage and distinct or outstanding authors.

Encyclopaedia Americana

All articles are signed by the author, a leading authority in his/her field, chosen by a team of editors and advisors. Americana is one of the largest general encyclopaedias in the English language. This series has more than 45000 articles, most of them more than 500 words and many running to considerable length (the “United States” article is over 300,000 words). The work’s coverage of American and Canadian geography and history has been a traditional strength. The Encyclopaedia Americana is written by over 6000 contributors, and most articles are signed by their contributors. Controversial subjects are included with several references for abortion, homelessness, and homosexuality. The editors have striven for a balanced and objective viewpoint on all topics.

Purpose

Wikipedia

Wikipedia’s purpose is to benefit readers by acting as an encyclopaedia, a comprehensive written compendium that includes information on all branches of knowledge. The goal of Wikipedia is to build a free encyclopaedia; indeed, the largest encyclopaedia in history, not only in terms of breadth but also in terms of depth and also want Wikipedia to be a reliable resource. The purpose of an encyclopaedia is to gather knowledge spread around the globe; to express its general system to the men with whom we live, and broadcast it to those who will come after us, so that the work of prior centuries will not become useless to the centuries to come; and so that our children, becoming better instructed, will at the same time become more worthy and happy, and that wiki cannot die without having provided a service to the human race. Many visitors come to Wikipedia to acquire knowledge, while others come to share knowledge. At this very moment, dozens of articles are being superior, and new articles are also being created.

Britannica

The purpose of the online encyclopaedia Britannica is to be an excellent reference and to provide academic materials to students and researchers. For academic institutions, libraries, and corporations, Britannica provides Encyclopædia Britannica Online, a wealth of trusted, wide-ranging resources intended especially for serious researchers. This widely varied set of powerful resources makes Encyclopædia Britannica Online an essential addition to every academic, corporate, and research library. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition presents Britannica’s renowned educational resources in a student-friendly and engaging site designed especially for teachers and elementary, middle, and high school students. This unique resource brings together three encyclopaedias–Encyclopædia Britannica, Britannica Student Encyclopaedia, and Britannica Elementary Encyclopaedia–to meet the needs of a variety of reading levels. In addition, a section specifically for teachers provides worksheets to support effective use of the Internet in the classroom.

Encyclopaedia Americana

The corporate purpose of Scholastic is to encourage the intellectual and personal growth of all children, beginning with literacy, the cornerstone of all learning. As well as more than 90 years of experience supporting the learning lives of children, today Scholastic remains committed to providing quality, engaging educational content in digital and print formats for the next generation of learners, and the families and educators who guide them. This encyclopaedia is intended for use as a general reference resource in schools, colleges, and public libraries. No American bias is detected.

Physical production

Wikipedia

As for the largest Wikipedia, which is the English version, it includes around 3.8 million articles. All these documents are only in electronic format. Another feature of the “toolbox” is the “Printable version”. Use it whenever users want to print articles for a printer-friendly version of the article. Browsers (eg.Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explore) that will be familiar with the media print will automatically apply the printable version when printing with the default Mono book style sheet. There are more than 8000 active contributors working on more than 19 million articles which is a really large number of articles. It can compare to another project by the cofounder of Wikipedia called Citizendum. It’s the short for of citizen compendium and is another online encyclopaedia project with tighter editing rules and higher reliability due to a close interaction between authors and editors. This means that Citizendum contains more reliable information but way less content (about 16 thousand articles).

Britannica

Britannica usually prints a new set of the tomes every two years, but 2010’s 32-volume set will be its last. Instead, the company will focus only on its digital encyclopaedia and education tools. The online version of the encyclopaedia, which was first published in 1994, represents only 15% of Britannica’s revenue. The other 85% is sales of education products: online learning tools, curriculum products and more. Encyclopaedia Britannica brings to sudden stop of print publication after 244 years. The print version of the Britannica was considerably more expensive than its competitors. 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.

Encyclopedia Americana

Today, each year Americana released more than 600 titles for readers of all ages(0-18), in a variety of print and digital formats. Since 1926, when Scholastic published its first collection, Saplings, the Company has continued to release award-winning and best-selling books, ranging from beautifully-rendered titles for tots to holding reads that fascinate global audiences. Among those 600 are the amazingly successful publishing properties like Harry Potter, and Captain Underpants, Goosebumps, The 39 Clues, the beloved series Clifford the Big Red Dog, I Spy, Bone, Fly Guy, Dear America, Geronimo Stilton, The Magic School Bus, and The Hunger Games trilogy. The list of authors and illustrators consists of Tedd Arnold, Blue Balliett, Jim Benton, Meg Cabot, Patrick Carman, Suzanne Collins, Christopher Paul Curtis, Gordon Korman, Cynthia Lord, Ann M. Martin, Jon J Muth, Dav Pilkey, J.K. Rowling, Matthew Reinhart, Pam Muñoz Ryan, Allen Say, Brian Selznick, David Shannon, Jeff Smith, Maggie Stiefvater, Mark Teague, and Walter Wick, among others – a diverse list representing titles that span themes, ages, and geographies. Scholastic Trade division also publishes licensed properties such as Star Wars, Rainbow Magic, It’s Happy Bunny, Lego, Chuggington, and Bob Books. Scholastic books have a reputation for gathering accolades and awards (including Caldecott Medals, National Book Awards, Newbery Medals, and Coretta Scott King Awards) and topping bestseller lists year upon year, and include memorable titles and series like The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, No, David!, Allie Finkle’s Rules For Girls, How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?, Amulet, Star Wars: A Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy, Wonderstruck, Smile, The Underland Chronicles, The Baby-sitters Club, Owen & Mzee, The Guardians of Ga’Hoole series, Chasing Vermeer, Charlie Bone, Zen Shorts, and the Shiver trilogy. Nearly ten years later, on July 21, 2007, Scholastic published the much-anticipated seventh and final book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, making publishing history with a record-breaking 8.3 million copies sold in the U.S. in the first 24 hours. More than 140 million copies of the Harry Potter books are in print in the United States; more than 400 million copies have sold worldwide.

Arrangement

Wikipedia

Wikipedia has a good starting point at the summary of a topic, but its greatest value is its links to outside sources. As for Britannica, it’s a pathetic shadow of its old treeware self. Wikipedia also has many portals, which categorize content around topic areas; our best portals are collected as featured portals. Articles can be found using the search box on the top-right side of the screen. A representative article contains a main page, titled on the definite topic (I.e., UNESCO) and a second page is accessible to discuss the topic with other users. These pages can be read, edited or one can access the editing history. On the main article page, there is a short introduction on the topic, organized by a table of content that work as hyperlinks. To display articles, users can type a search in the search field or browse through the lists that include lists of countries and territories, of people, by nationality, by occupation. It also has alphabetical indexes sorted by the first two letters of the title modified by subject or special categories. Each subpart includes an edit button so everything can be edited. Paragraphs contain several hyperlinked terms to further extend the information someone can get on the topic or related issues. The last part of the page is a list of reference, then external links and related articles. One of the lesser users’ known, especially useful, techniques for researching with Wikipedia is the effective use of the “What links here” link which is on the left side of the screen, as the first item in the box marked “toolbox”. This link will contribute users a complete list of other Wikipedia articles that link to the current article. Even if the article user are looking at is a stub or, more extraordinarily, if it is a blank article, several related articles may be easily accessible through this feature. Sometimes these backward links will show users ways in which the article users started from is incomplete in one area or another. An interesting feature is a list of timelines (centuries, decades or the major events in a given year). It is remarkable to mention that there is no advanced search option but only a single option less normal search. Changes can be viewed at the recent changes page and a random page at random articles. Over 3,500 articles have been designated by the Wikipedia community as featured articles, exemplifying the best articles in the encyclopaedia. Another 15,000 articles are designated as good articles. Some information on Wikipedia is organized into lists; the best of these are designated as featured lists.

Britannica

The Britannica includes 33 volumes. It separated into three main sections; volumes from 1-12 (Micropedia) which covered the short articles set (less than 750 words) that focuses on ready reference questions. Volumes from13-29 (Macropedia) containing longer articles (2+ pages) with more in-depth information. Volume 30 (Propedia), a one volume covers 10parts of knowledge (Matter and energy, The Earth and life on it, Human life, Human society, Arts, Technology, Religion, History of mankind, and Branchesof Knowledge) , this volume summaries of contains all human knowledge. The topic in each section in (Micropedia, Macropedia) arranged alphabetically letter by letter. This Britannica is connected with facebook, twitter, youtube, newsletters, RSS, Widgets. When I browsed through the articles, each EB article was overwhelmed by as many as 8 Airtel ads per page, depending on the length of the article/page. If users would like to avoid ads, sign up for a subscription form. There is a normal search and an advanced search. If we want to narrow down or broaden the results, the advanced search option uses Boolean operator like AND, OR, NOT, using other options. In the field of research tools users can change different options such as: compare countries, this day in history, timeline, world atlas, world data analyst. There is also a spotlight section, where we can see the special features of the encyclopaedia. Each list has its own features, so for the videos, images & audio list, the requested result is displayed including naturally images, audio recordings and video files so that user can comprehend the topic more easily. Users can contribute to their browsing history, relating articles in terms of type, description, date, and contributor. Users can get information about the primary contributors and other contributors in the list of contributor. It is also possible to browse a dictionary or thesaurus to search the meaning of words. In the last part, widgets shows information of history of event and people related to the requested article and various date. The results are also displayed like a table of contents, where users can conveniently select the sub-menu of their choice for a more efficient browsing. An interesting feature is that the author of the article can give his or her purpose to the readers. Indeed, the online encyclopaedia Britannica academic edition have got the teachers’ choice award, 2007 & 2008 SIIA CODiE winner because of its structured and organized contents, secure environment for internet research, and « neutral perspectives » (as we mentioned this neutral perspective is subject to discussion).

 Encyclopaedia Americana

Articles are composed of alphabetically, using the word-by-word system. If two or more articles have the same heading they are ordered by person, place, and thing. Each entry begins with a large bold-faced heading, and may be further sub-divided by smaller bold-faced sub-headings. Longer articles include a contents box for quicker searching, with an information highlights box. Cross-references may be provided in the text or at the end of article. A bibliography is included at the end of an article when appropriate. Users can choose among five customized interfaces that meet specialized needs and the reading and interest levels of the user. The five interfaces are: 1) Elementary School interface 2) Middle School interface 3) High School interface 4) Adult Patron interface 5) Librarians/Educators interface. Each interface composes of features and returns search results based on reading levels tied to three core differentiated domains: Elementary School, Middle School, and High School/Adult Patron. A pronunciation key and a list of abbreviations used in the encyclopaedia are included at the beginning of each volume.

Recency (Currentness)

Wikipedia

In October 2012, there are editions of Wikipedia in 285 languages. It has become the largest and most popular general reference work on the Internet, standing sixth globally among all websites on Alexa and having an estimated 365 million readers worldwide. In 2011, Wikipedia received an estimated 2.7 billion monthly page views from the United States alone. Wikipedia has taken a great deal of criticism in the press for problems relating to the trustworthiness of its authors and its general responsibility.

Britannica

Many people know Britannica as the publisher of those big multivolume encyclopaedias that have been a source of joy and learning since 1768. Today that encyclopaedia is chiefly to be found in a multitude of digital forms that are updated daily. The online encyclopaedia Britannica’s home page is updated every day with the breaking news and revised articles from New York Times. Britannica also marks the contribution of users by presenting the comments they left on articles. The updating of the content is subject to the editorial board’s policy. The updating are quite fast and the content is revised more regularly than the printed version. Now Britannia is also available as Online School Edition, so it’s not completely behind Wikipedia. Today this Britannica extremely expanded with schools, parents, and educators, designing products for the 21st-century classroom and today’s home learning environments. Britannica is a creator in digital education, and their products are marked by engaging and reliable content. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc, have announced that it will stop publishing its 32-volume print edition (retail value $1400) after 244 years, and instead focus on its digital versions. The Encyclopaedia Britannica is a general knowledge book brought out first in three volumes in 1768 by three people.

Encyclopaedia Americana

Today, Scholastic is the largest publisher and distributor of children’s books in the world, with a collection of titles that entertain and support children’s wide-ranging interested and stages of reading development. Whether it’s a graphic novel or a board book, a future dystopian setting or a look back in history, our books help young readers explore their imaginations and become lifelong lovers of books. Information is up-to-date for the time of publication.

Accuracy

Wikipedia

Wikipedia has taken a number of positive steps to help develop and maintain the accuracy and objectivity of Wikipedia entries. It’s important to note that Wikipedia articles are in a state of constant flux and there is the potential for vandalization. Wikipedia with an open nature has directed to various concerns, such as the quality of writing, the amount of vandalism and the accuracy of information. Some articles have unconfirmed or unreliable information, although a 2005 investigation in Nature presented that the science articles they compared came close to the level of accuracy of Encyclopædia Britannica and had a similar rate of “serious errors”. Wikipedia had a rule against using original research that some claim discourages participation by scholars and experts. Nevertheless, those same scholars and experts are able to participate in the writing of articles and linking to supporting documents on the web. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has always maintained that the service and its community are set up a self-policing and self-cleaning nature that is supposed to ensure its articles are accurate.

Britannica

Since the articles are written by professors and experts from in their respective fields we can confidently conclude that the content is accurate. It also is satisfactorily up-to-date. The sentence structure is also organized very well. In a press release, Jorge Cauz, President Encyclopaedia Britannica says Britannica Online includes abundant information along with gorgeous multimedia, and that makes it an excellent match for Bharti Airtel’s broadband service. There are eight serious errors, such as general misunderstandings of vital concepts, in the articles but users can find a series of factual errors, omissions or misleading statements. Wikipedia had 162 such problems, while Britannica had 123. The averages are 2.92 mistakes per article for Britannica and 3.86 for Wikipedia. Britannica came out looking a little bit more accurate than Wikipedia. the error rate for each encyclopaedia was not insignificant, and added that he thinks such numbers demonstrate that broad review of encyclopaedia articles is needed. Britannica is more reliable than Wiki. However, the content is not necessarily in-depth. While searching for Singapore, the article does not mention the Marina Bay Sands or who the president is. In comparison, the recent marriage of Prince William is largely covered.

Encyclopaedia Americana

The 30 volume publication contains tens of thousands of articles written to serve the educational community as a bridge between the general reader and the specialist. Articles are accurately presented in easy to understand language, and are aimed at all learners and educators, from the young student to teachers and librarians. When an author is chosen to write an article, he/she is reminded that the objective of the publication is to present facts and interpretations to the non-specialist reader, as well as explain technical terms in an understandable manner. Before publication, each article is reviewed by the editors to ensure accuracy of information and vocabulary, spelling and sentence structures that it satisfies these objectives. In the new edition, the Editor has make an afforded to limit the work to its legal purpose – the presentation of knowledge with faithfulness and with scholarly objectivity, avoiding the promotion of theories and such discussions and protections as are wholly strange to the character and nature of an encyclopaedia. Every effort has been made to protect not only accuracy of statement but also fairness and correctness of view.

Treatment

Wikipedia

The editing guidelines also mention a manual of style that provides detailed guidance to help editors to use a reliable, clear and exact language and layout. It is recommended to avoid jargon or vague or unnecessarily complex wording. Usually if any jargon or concept is used in an article, it will be hyperlinked to the matching Wikipedia page on this term. Regarding as the importance of the term, it finally attains a Wikipedia article of its own, which is nearly always linked to. It is usually clarified with more known terms. There is no range of English specification except for quotations, proper names, titles of works such as books, films, or songs where the original spelling must be kept. Articles on precise comparison of variety of English can feature different spellings. In addition, the guidelines mention that several citation styles are possible, namely the main recognized styles such as APA or MLA. The users can also give a rate the article according to its perceived trustworthiness, objectivity, completeness and whether it was well-written, the user can also mention whether users are knowledgeable on the topic .

Britannica

As this encyclopedia have for many years, by cooperating with experts, scholars, educators, instructional designers, and user-experience specialists; by subjecting their work to hard editorial review; and by combining it all into learning products that are useful, reliable, and enjoyable. Each edition of the Britannica is written and updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,400 contributors. It is regarded as one of the most scholarly of English language encyclopaedias and remained roughly the same size for the past 70 years, consisting of 40 million words on a half-million different topics. The current 15th edition, published in 2010, consists of 32 volumes – a two-volume index, a 12 volume Micropaedia, and a 17 volume Propaedia. The online edition costs a lot less, with a basic subscription running at $17 per year or $1.99 per month, compared to $1,395 for the 32-volume print version. The company has been providing online editions of its encyclopaedia for 20 years, with more than 65% of its online sales coming from educational institutions; the online edition is updated continually. The goal is to expand its appeal to consumers. With that move, Britannica is taking on Wikipedia. Although publication has been based in the United States since 1901, the Britannica has maintained British spelling. Its three-volume first edition was published in 1768-71 in Edinburgh, Scot. In subsequent editions it grew in size and reputation. The most famous editions include the ninth (1875-89), known as “the scholar’s encyclopaedia,” and the 11th (1910-11), which, with contributions from more than 1,500 experts of world reputation, was also the first to divide the usually long treatises into more specified articles. The current edition, the 15th (1974, with a major revision in 1985), exemplified a new structure, dividing the major articles from the shorter ones. Encyclopædia Britannica now also appears in CD-ROM and on-line versions. A series of ownership changes lead to its purchase by American publishers in 1901; since the 1940s it has been published in Chicago. Almost all articles are written in simple and widespread way, but particularly for the science and technology, users can see technological jargons, as this is addressed more to the educated users. It uses MLA and APA citation styles.

Encyclopedia Americana

The index also lists thousands of entries for which there are no separate articles, but does provide listings of articles that cover the subject. In all cases, volume and page numbers are provided for easy look-up. In 1902 a new version in 16 volumes that carried over some of the old material was published under the title Encyclopaedia Americana, under the editorial supervision of Scientific American magazine. The magazine’s editor, Frederick Converse Beach, was editor-in-chief, to be assisted by hundreds of famous scholars and authorities who served as consulting editors or authors. The first publisher was R.S. Peale & Co; between 1903 and 1906 further editions were issued by the Americana Corp. and the Scientific American Compiling Department, with George Edwin Rines appointed managing editor in 1903. The relationship with Scientific American was terminated in 1911. From 1907 to 1912, the work was published as The Americana. A major new edition appeared in 1918-20 in 30 volumes, with George Edwin Rines as editor-in-chief. An Annual or Yearbook was also published each year beginning in 1923 and continuing until 2000.The sentence structure is very simple with easy understanding vocabulary. The meaning and simple sentence structure can clarify the complexity of expressed thoughts. It seldom use jargons words in the Americana.

User

Wikipedia

Wikipedia aims to be user friendly and accessible to all. The main resource is in English but if the user doesn’t speak English, he or she can access it in another language, though the content will be more limited. The English text of the CC-BY-SA and GFDL licenses is the only legally binding restriction between authors and users of Wikipedia content. What follows is our interpretation of CC-BY-SA and GFDL, as it pertains to the rights and obligations of users and contributors.

Britannica

The online encyclopaedia Britannica is a general encyclopaedia so that it is not only targeted to the intellectual levels such as students, teachers, librarians, and administrators but also targeted the kids. The Britannica websites are general audience sites, intended for Users (visitors and subscribers) of all ages. If a user is a California resident, he/she is entitled to prevent sharing of his/her personal information with third parties for his/her own marketing purposes through a cost-free means. If users send a request to Britannica Customer Service, Britannica will provide users with a California Customer Choice Notice that they may use to opt-out of such information sharing. Now all Airtel Broadband customers in India can take a 2 year free subscription to Encyclopaedia Britannica (worth Rs.6575). Specifically, there are three models for them: students’ encyclopaedia (age 11 and above), children’s encyclopaedia (age 8-11), and thesaurus and dictionary. In the latter, articles to be browsed are subjects related to their curriculum. EB is absolutely the biggest authoritative resource of information with over 100 million users. Users are able to visit many of website pages without informing who they are or revealing any information about themselves. Users contin