Europa World Online is the electronic version of the well‐regarded Europa World Year Book. The content, as nearly as this reviewer can tell, is identical between the two versions. Although there are several ways to find information, the primary arrangement of the online product is by country. Each entry includes three main sections: general information about the country, statistical information, and a directory of important institutions in the county.
The first of these sections includes basic almanac‐type information (population, religions, currency, GDP, etc.) as well as a lengthy account (2,000‐4,000 words) of the country’s recent history. There are brief descriptions of the state of education and economic affairs, and a description of the government structure. Each entry also includes a fairly simple map and a large scale colour image of the country’s flag. The quantity of statistical data varies widely from country to country, presumably based on the amount of information and relevance. There are statistics on population trends, education, finance, industry, trade, transportation, and media/communications. Where possible, some historical data are included as well as current data. Sources are given for some but not all of the data; many of the sources are United Nations publications. The directory portion of each entry includes government agencies and officials, religious leaders, media outlets (newspapers, presses, and radio and television stations), utilities and trade organizations. It is interesting to note that contact information for educational institutions is not included, though this omission is understandable given the sheer quantity of such information and the availability of other sources.
The site is cleanly laid out, and information is easy to find. Owing to the volume of information on each country, the designers have chosen to dedicate a great deal of screen real estate to navigating the contents of each entry. Although this limits the space available to display the actual content, the trade‐off was well chosen. This means that some longer sections (e.g. the lengthy historical notes) require users to scroll far down the page, but the resulting half‐screen paragraph width is easier to read than a full screen‐width would be over long periods of time. The site works well in all browsers tested (including surprisingly good performance in a text‐only browser), although the text will sometimes run off the screen in Mozilla and in Netscape versions 6.x and 7.x for Windows. It is to be hoped that the publisher will correct this difficulty.
The chief limitation of the site is that some information is provided in an extremely compartmentalized fashion. A country may only have a handful of ministries, newspapers or religious officials, but the contact information for each office is only available on a page by itself. It is not possible to view a list of all newspapers (or other entities) with their addresses all at once. Here, the print version has a distinct advantage. (On the other hand, users of the online version will not suffer the deleterious effects of reading the very small type of the printed copy.)
The two graphic elements for each country, the flag and the map, could each be made slightly more useful. In each entry, there is a picture of the flag as well as a detailed description. It would be nice to be able to view both at once. Each entry also includes a country map, but provides almost no surrounding information to show how the country fits into its corner of the world. An area map showing a country’s position among its neighbours would be a beneficial addition.
The product takes advantage of its medium to include a sophisticated search feature, which allows users to perform simple fulltext keyword searches. Users may limit the search to a particular country or region, and may also limit the search to organizations or people. There is also an alphabetical list of all organizations included in the directory section of each country; this replicates the function served by an additional index in the printed volumes. The site includes a context‐sensitive help feature; the site is sufficiently self‐explanatory that it may be largely unnecessary, although it does include some surprisingly helpful information, such as international phone dialing codes and time zone differences.
This product, like its printed version, is too expensive to be considered a mandatory purchase, and libraries unable to afford it will lust after it with the same longing with which they view the printed volume. Libraries that make heavy use of the print version, however, will seriously wish to consider acquiring the online version, either on its own or in a bundled deal with the print volume. As mentioned above, there will be occasions where the dense display of the print will be preferable, but most libraries would be well‐served by having networked access to this excellent resource. Highly recommended.
