The Encyclopaedia Britannica CD 98 is a two‐disc product that includes the full text of the encyclopedia on each disc, decreasing the need to change discs. It sports a newly designed interface built on the Microsoft Explorer platform. If Microsoft Internet Explorer is not installed on the host computer, The Encyclopaedia Britannica CD 98 will install it and make it the default browser. The product also requires 800 × 600 screen resolution. This is important as the menus and some windows extend beyond the screen at 640 × 480 resolution and cannot be moved, closed, or worked with properly at the lower resolution.
The product includes 72,000 articles (7,000 more than the previous version), over 8,500 photos and images (double those in the previous version), over 1,200 maps, more than 1.4 million hypertext links and 15,000 related Internet links, as well as sound and video/animation files. The product also includes the Britannica Books of the Year for 1994 through 1997 and the Merriam‐Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 10th edition.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica CD 98 contains a relatively large amount of multimedia, much of it in a variety of formats, requiring several auxiliary programs to cooperate. Images are in GIF and JPG formats, video clips require QuickTime for Windows, and audio clips need Shockwave. While the installation program should install the proper display drivers, it may not always do so. For example, my system had QuickTime for Windows and Shockwave already installed; but the installation program did not recognize them and configure Britannica properly. Consequently, the links to the videos would not play properly. The program identified the proper clip and wanted to go online to get the appropriate “helper” program.
The bottom of the main menu shows buttons that provide the principal avenues to approach the encyclopedia: Spectrum, Compass, Analyst, Timelines, Spotlight, and Online. The top of the screen shows the navigation tools: buttons for full text search (also called Ask Britannica) or for browsing titles (also called Discover Britannica), A to go to the most recent article, < to go back, > to go forward, I to go to the Index, and D to access the dictionary.
The Spectrum main screen classifies the articles in broad topic groups (matter and energy, the earth, life on earth, human life, human society, art, technology, religion, the history of mankind, and the branches of knowledge). Each topic has a corresponding icon. Selecting from the icon or from the text line shows a structured outline of the encyclopedia.
Researchers can also do a full text search on the entire database by entering a query in natural language, such as “who shot Abraham Lincoln?” The search engine apparently uses the Boolean OR operator, as it pulls up many “false drops.” The query on the CD produced 1989 hits while the same search on the Britannica Online produced 2013 items. The article on Booth, John Wilkes appeared ninth in the list. Full text search also recognizes the Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT, and ADJ as well as parentheses for nesting. Searching for “Lincoln and Assassination” placed the article on John Wilkes Booth 43rd on the list, after articles on New Lincoln School, Lincoln Tunnel, and even Santa Claus. However, a search for “Lincoln and Shot” placed the John Wilkes Booth article sixth.
The problem becomes more noticeable when one searches for Samuel Mudd, the doctor who set John Wilkes Booth’s leg after the assassination. There is no article on Mudd; but the search engine retrieves 1357 hits, many dealing with the Book of Samuel or Samuel and Saul. The most pertinent reference is an article on Dry Tortugas, an island off the coast of Florida, where Dr. Mudd was imprisoned for complicity in the assassination.
One can also browse the titles by keying in an article title and/or limiting by biographies, comprehensive articles, place, category, media, or a combination of these. The number of articles matching the criteria appear below the categories and researchers can choose to view the articles in a small preview window or in full page view. In full page view, a window with related articles appears to the right of the main article.
Compass displays an interactive world map that offers geographic and statistical information about 191 nations and 29 dependent states of the world. One can go from world to continent to nation maps. Researchers can view political and physical maps as well as maps for precipitation, land use, vegetation, population, and peoples. Aside of the maps are flags and text that provide in‐depth information on the country or region. At the nation level, the map does not change. Clicking on cities, rivers, or other features displays articles about the item clicked. Here, one can also access the Britannica yearbooks and display the text full screen.
Analyst complements Compass by letting researchers compare and analyze economic, political, and social data for the countries and regions of the world. Researchers select a country or region, a comparator group, and the type of data desired (nation at a glance, demography, vital statistics, national economy, foreign trade, education and health, communication and transportation, and military). Information can appear in three forms: graph, chart, or report. Researchers can select the options and data sets that they find most pertinent.
Timeline lets researchers explore what was happening in architecture, literature, medicine, music, religion, science, technology, visual arts, and women’s history. One can select any two categories for side‐by‐side comparison and move the pointer on the time scale up or down as desired. This is a very interesting way to make interdisciplinary comparisons.
Spotlights permits users to take a virtual walk through the world’s ecosystems, watch the evolution of the dinosaur family, follow Civil War battles through animated maps with voice‐over, or explore the 1996 summer Olympic games. These are pre‐packaged “tours” that demonstrate the richness of the encyclopedia.
The content of The Encyclopaedia Britannica CD 98 corresponds pretty much with the printed and online editions. As one would expect, the online version would be more current; so the CD version includes a facility to go online to consult the online version or to get free monthly updates of the related Internet links. Users who do not have an Internet provider can take advantage of an offer to subscribe through Earthlink.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica has long been regarded as the most authoritative and comprehensive encyclopedia. The variety of search paths provide multiple views of the organization of knowledge and a variety of approaches to the information contained on these discs. The links, both internal (to related articles and parts of the encyclopedia, such as Compass and Analyst) and external (Internet), are a great help for research. The external links attempt to select the best sites on a topic and thereby to categorize the Internet.
The natural search language engine needs considerable refinement before it provides totally satisfactory results. Users can specify how many results to display at a time; but virtually any search will produce such a large number of hits that inexperienced searchers will be overwhelmed. While pricier than its competitors in the consumer CD‐ROM market, The Encyclopaedia Britannica CD 98 is an excellent value considering its print counterpart is almost ten times more expensive.
