Britannica Global Edition 2016

[Elisa Rathrock]

The Encyclopdia Britannica (Latin for 'British Encyclopdia') is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopdia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The encyclopaedia is maintained by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 contributors. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, which spans 32 volumes[1] and 32,640 pages, was the last printed edition. Since 2016, it has been published exclusively as an online encyclopaedia.

In 1933, the Britannica became the first encyclopaedia to adopt "continuous revision", in which the encyclopaedia is continually reprinted, with every article updated on a schedule.[citation needed] In the 21st century, the Britannica suffered first from competition with the digital multimedia encyclopaedia Microsoft Encarta,[4] and later with the online peer-produced encyclopaedia Wikipedia.[5][6][7]

In March 2012, it announced it would no longer publish printed editions and would focus instead on the online version.[6][8] Britannica has been assessed to be politically closer to the centre of the US political spectrum than Wikipedia.[9]

From 1985, the Britannica consisted of four parts: the Micropdia, the Macropdia, the Propdia, and a two-volume index. The Britannica's articles are contained in the Micro- and Macropdia, which encompass 12 and 17 volumes, respectively, each volume having roughly one thousand pages. The 2007 Macropdia has 699 in-depth articles, ranging in length from two pages to 310 pages, with references and named contributors. In contrast, the 2007 Micropdia has roughly 65,000 articles, the vast majority (about 97%) of which contain fewer than 750 words, no references, and no named contributors.[10] The Micropdia articles are intended for quick fact-checking and to help in finding more thorough information in the Macropdia. The Macropdia articles are meant as authoritative, well-written commentaries on their subjects, as well as storehouses of information not covered elsewhere.[11] The longest article (310 pages) is on the subject of the United States, and it resulted from merging separate articles on the individual US states. A 2013 "Global Edition" of Britannica contained approximately 40,000 articles.[12]

Information can be found in the Britannica by following the cross-references in the Micropdia and Macropdia; these are sparse, however, averaging one cross-reference per page.[13] Readers are instead recommended to consult the alphabetical index or the Propdia, which organizes the Britannica's contents by topic.[14]

The core of the Propdia is its "Outline of Knowledge", which aims to provide a logical framework for all human knowledge.[15] Accordingly, the Outline is consulted by the Britannica's editors to decide which articles should be included in the Micro- and Macropdia.[15] The Outline can also be used as a study guide, as it puts subjects in their proper perspective and suggests a series of Britannica articles for the student wishing to learn a topic in depth.[15] However, libraries have found that it is scarcely used for this purpose, and reviewers have recommended that it be dropped from the encyclopaedia.[16] The Propdia contains color transparencies of human anatomy and several appendices listing the staff members, advisors, and contributors to all three parts of the Britannica.

Since 1936, the Britannica has been revised on a regular schedule, with at least 10% of the articles considered for revision each year.[13][18] According to one Britannica website, 46% of the articles in the 2007 edition were revised over the preceding three years;[19] however, according to another Britannica website, only 35% of the articles were revised over the same period.[20]

The alphabetization of articles in the Micropdia and Macropdia follows strict rules.[21] Diacritical marks and non-English letters are ignored, while numerical entries such as "1812, War of" are alphabetized as if the number had been written out ("Eighteen-twelve, War of"). Articles with identical names are ordered first by persons, then by places, then by things. Rulers with identical names are organized first alphabetically by country and then by chronology; thus, Charles III of France precedes Charles I of England, listed in Britannica as the ruler of Great Britain and Ireland. (That is, they are alphabetized as if their titles were "Charles, France, 3" and "Charles, Great Britain and Ireland, 1".) Similarly, places that share names are organized alphabetically by country, then by ever-smaller political divisions.

In March 2012, the company announced that the 2010 edition would be the last printed version. This was part of a move by the company to adapt to the times and focus on its future using digital distribution.[22] The peak year for the printed encyclopaedia was 1990, when 120,000 sets were sold, but sales had dropped to 40,000 per annum by 1996.[23] There were 12,000 sets of the 2010 edition printed, of which 8,000 had been sold by March 2012.[24] By late April 2012, the remaining copies of the 2010 edition had sold out at Britannica's online store. As of 2016[update], a replica of Britannica's 1768 first edition is available via the online store.[25]

A British Children's Britannica edited by John Armitage was issued in London in 1960.[27] Its contents were determined largely by the eleven-plus standardized tests given in Britain.[28] Britannica introduced the Children's Britannica to the US market in 1988, aimed at ages seven to 14.

There have been, and are, several abridged Britannica encyclopaedias. The single-volume Britannica Concise Encyclopdia has 28,000 short articles condensing the larger 32-volume Britannica;[30] there are authorized translations in languages such as Chinese[31] created by Encyclopedia of China Publishing House[32] and Vietnamese.[33][34]

Since 1938, Encyclopdia Britannica, Inc. has published annually a Book of the Year covering the past year's events. A given edition of the Book of the Year is named in terms of the year of its publication, though the edition actually covers the events of the previous year. The company also publishes several specialized reference works, such as Shakespeare: The Essential Guide to the Life and Works of the Bard (Wiley, 2006).

The Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite 2012 DVD contains over 100,000 articles.[36] This includes regular Britannica articles, as well as others drawn from the Britannica Student Encyclopdia, and the Britannica Elementary Encyclopdia. The package includes a range of supplementary content including maps, videos, sound clips, animations and web links. It also offers study tools and dictionary and thesaurus entries from Merriam-Webster.

Britannica Online is a website with more than 120,000 articles and is updated regularly.[37] It has daily features, updates and links to news reports from The New York Times and the BBC. As of 2009[update], roughly 60% of Encyclopdia Britannica's revenue came from online operations, of which around 15% came from subscriptions to the consumer version of the websites.[38] As of 2006[update], subscriptions were available on a yearly, monthly or weekly basis.[39] Special subscription plans are offered to schools, colleges and libraries; such institutional subscribers constitute an important part of Britannica's business. Beginning in early 2007, the Britannica made articles freely available if they are hyperlinked from an external site. Non-subscribers are served pop-ups and advertising.[40]

On 20 February 2007, Encyclopdia Britannica, Incorporated announced that it was working with mobile phone search company AskMeNow to launch a mobile encyclopaedia.[41] Users will be able to send a question via text message, and AskMeNow will search Britannica's 28,000-article concise encyclopaedia to return an answer to the query. Daily topical features sent directly to users' mobile phones were also planned.

On 3 June 2008, an initiative to facilitate collaboration between online expert and amateur scholarly contributors for Britannica's online content (in the spirit of a wiki), with editorial oversight from Britannica staff, was announced.[42][43] Approved contributions would be credited,[44] though contributing automatically grants Encyclopdia Britannica, Incorporated perpetual, irrevocable license to those contributions.[45]

On 22 January 2009, Britannica's president, Jorge Cauz, announced that the company would be accepting edits and additions to the online Britannica website from the public. The published edition of the encyclopaedia will not be affected by the changes.[46] Individuals wishing to edit the Britannica website will have to register under their real name and address prior to editing or submitting their content.[47] All edits submitted will be reviewed and checked and will have to be approved by the encyclopaedia's professional staff.[47] Contributions from non-academic users will sit in a separate section from the expert-generated Britannica content,[48] as will content submitted by non-Britannica scholars.[49] Articles written by users, if vetted and approved, will also only be available in a special section of the website, separate from the professional articles.[46][49] Official Britannica material would carry a "Britannica Checked" stamp, to distinguish it from the user-generated content.[50]

On 7 June 2018, Britannica released a Google Chrome extension, "Britannica Insights", which shows snippets of information from Britannica Online whenever the user performs a Google Search, in a box to the right of Google's results.[58] Britannica Insights was also available as a Firefox extension but this was taken down due to a code review issue.[59]

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