First of all, note that this source has nothing to do with the Encyclopaedia Britannica. While it calls itself “Britannia Internet Magazine,” it is not really a magazine in the sense of successive issues of content released at regular intervals. Instead, “Britannia” is a collection of resources on the history and culture of the British Isles. Launched in 1996, this site has been expanded regularly. It is the publisher’s goal to continue to enrich the resource by constantly expanding the content. (The producer of Britannia Travels is launching an e‐journal “soon.”)
The site uses graphics extensively (and thus is slow to load). While usually tasteful and informationally useful, there are times when the large banner headline for the site causes an annoying delay and takes up too much space. The recent addition of advertisements on the site will also slow the loading of pages. The home page provides a listing of the many paths (i.e., sections) of the web site that a user might pursue. These include: Arts, Science, Links, Maps, Sports, Government, Arthur, London, Church, Panorama, Sites, Primes, Diana, Wales, History, Travel, News and Monarchs. There is a pull down menu for the categories with a sublisting of content for each category. There is also a narrative description of each area and the site includes advertisements.
There is a search function for the site that can help pinpoint the location of a subject. While there is a “Help” function, it does not explain how the search engine works. A test suggests the search engine does a keyword search assuming AND between search terms and returns results for individual terms of a compound statement when there are no results for the full statement. Returned items are ranked; but there is no description of the principles for the ranking.
The level of writing and focus are clearly aimed at a popular audience with strong interest in the subject. Each section contains links to other resources. Sometimes, these are obvious because of the way they are presented as a list of links for further information. On the other hand, there are pages that appear to be the listing of content for another section of the “Britannia” only to turn out to be links to other sites. As a result, unless the user notes Web addresses carefully, she/he may find her/himself at an entirely different site.
The History section includes a timeline with links to people and terms. It also includes reproductions of a number of major documents of English history. So far, thirty‐eight documents are included with the most recent being dated 1689. These documents include important items such as the Magna Carte and texts of first‐hand accounts of events such as the Rebellion of Simon de Mont Fort.
The Maps section includes maps of the British Isles that locate cities, rivers, counties, islands, and bodies of water. There are no detailed maps of cities except London. A section of maps entitled “Major Cities” implies city maps; but instead, it locates a city on an outline map of Great Britain and lists web sites about the city.
The Science section is disappointing. It supposedly contains a listing, by month, of recent announcements of new developments in science and technology that involve the British Isles, but may not have occurred on the islands. For the months that are present, between two and eight news items are listed. The series begins with July, 1996; and, for several months, there are brief descriptions of the content of the linked stories. However, those descriptions disappear and the whole section is incomplete. After consecutive months, July through October, 1996, there are no further listings until December, 1997, and nothing has been added since.
The Church section contains several lengthy articles on such topics as Development of Christian Society in Early Britain, Abbeys & Cathedrals in England & Wales, Overview of Christianity in Britain, The Structure of the English Church, and Monasticism in Britain Separate from the Organized Church.
These comments are intended to give a sense of the many parts of the site and the unevenness of their development. In summary, “Britannia” is not a scholarly resource, although some of the contributors are scholars. Rather, it would meet the general interest of the public or middle and high school students who want to know something about the British Isles, particularly those outside the British Isles. Despite the recent upgrading and the addition of new content, the producers of the site are too ambitious in their setting of the scope of the site. As a result, the site suffers from an unevenness in quality.
