The Columbia Encyclopedia is the electronic version of the standard one volume encyclopedia of the same title. Mr. Lagasse is also the editor of this seminal work and, as such, maintains excellent editorial quality. There are three methods for looking up articles and facts ‐ searching for an article by name through the ARTICLE screen, searching for an article by subject category through the category screen, and searching the words in the text of the articles through the search screen.
I. Searching for an article by name.
The first screen you see when you run the Columbia Encyclopedia is the ARTICLE screen. The left side of the screen has a text‐entry box and a window with the list of the articles in the encyclopedia. The right side has a larger window where the text of the article appears. In many instances, this is where you will be able to locate your information. Typing an article title in the text‐entry box will cause the table of contents below to scroll automatically to the title of the article you are searching for. If there is not an exact match, it shows the closest match to the keyed terms. You may also browse the table of contents using the scroll bars or the PgDn and PgUp keys.
When you have located the title of the article you want to read, a simple double‐click brings up the text of the article on a full screen. If the article is long, an OUTLINE is available that summarizes the text’s organization. A double‐click on the items in the outline will take you to that portion of the article.
Articles have hyperlinks to other articles. A search on Harry Truman, for example, resulted in 12 hyperlinks to various people and programs. The article was then followed by a bibliography. There are buttons available to print the article and to go back. Those familiar with web browsers will appreciate these nice conveniences.
II. Searching for an article by subject category.
The category screen is accessed by clicking on the CATEGORY tab on the top of the screen. This serves to search for articles on the basis of the subject categories that appear in the upper right of the screen. If no category is selected, the engine searches the complete list of categories. Examples of categories include, History, Science, and People. These can help you narrow a search somewhat; but they are less important than just searching the article list. Browsing in this screen is similar to browsing in the article screen.
III. Searching the words in the text of the articles.
Clicking on the tab marked SEARCH will switch you to the search screen where you can perform a word search of the entire encyclopedia. On the upper left of the screen is a text‐entry box where you type a word or phrase. The program will search for the words or phrase you entered after clicking the Find button. An alphabetical list of the articles containing the word(s) will be displayed. You can browse this list and select the article you want.
If you wish to add several other terms to a search, there are three additional text‐entry boxes on the upper right, each with a check box with an “AND” in it. Here is where you can perform Boolean logic by selecting the arrow to change the “AND” to AND, OR, or NOT. This allows you to be very specific in the search terms.
In summary, this is an excellent encyclopedia. Do not expect flash and dash, though. There are no pictures or sound like some other multimedia encyclopedias. Because of this, the articles tend to be longer, as more space is left to words rather than pictures. The hyperlinks make it easy to navigate through the database; and the function buttons are a nice touch. Highly recommended.
