Britannica Versus World Book

For many school librarians, online encyclopedias are often a difficult product to select. The two major online encyclopedias, Britannica Online and World Book Web, have loyal followers who may not have considered selecting another encyclopedia. However, if librarians haven't investigated each of these programs recently, they are sure to discover unique features, additions, and resources that fit the needs of their students much better than in the past...and may end up wanting to purchase both!

PreK-12+

Britannica Online School Edition includes the Learning Zone, which is roughly $.65 per user with a $390 minimum required. However, there are significant discounts for districts and consortia. For more information, contact Encyclopedia Britannica Inc. at 800-621-3900 or email: contact@eb.com.

Britannica Online School Edition actually includes four products that will definitely fit the needs of a wide variety of users. This online encyclopedia enables users to search for age-appropriate content that specifically addresses the reading levels, interests, and abilities of students within one simple access point. Contained within this package is the Encyclopedia Britannica for high school students; Compton's by Britannica for middle school students; Britannica Elementary; and Britannica's new program for the PreK-2 grade set called Britannica Learning Zone.

Each of these programs (except for the Britannica Learning Zone) provides students with a wide range of access points including an Index, the A–Z Browse, a Subject Browse, the Year in Review, the World Atlas, Timelines, Video Browse, and more. In addition, the encyclopedia articles and student activities are aligned to state curriculum standards, which makes using the online encyclopedia in the library or the classroom an easy way to teach encyclopedia access and use.

Britannica Online School Edition provides over 450 Teacher Resources and Learning Materials for subjects such as math, science, and social studies at specific instructional levels and enhances content for students through additional safe Web links. The library of current magazines and journals used within the online resource are updated monthly, plus, students can easily access unknown terms through a single click that links them directly to the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary and Thesaurus, which is built right in.

Britannica Online School Edition currently contains over 24,000 images, photos, illustrations, maps, and video clips (which can be downloaded and added to presentation software to extend the instructional process), as well as biographies, time lines, spotlights, a world atlas, and more.

Britannica's Learning Zone for PreK-2 provides a unique program for the youngest of learners. Through classroom-tested, interactive learning programs within the encyclopedia, young children can participate in games; listen to audio segments; watch videos; learn the alphabet and vocabulary words that build toward reading; and learn numbers, colors, time, sounds, and much, much more.

A Teacher's Guide includes ideas of ways to incorporate the Learning Zone program into lessons that directly relate to the curriculum. Subject areas such as science, language arts, math, and social studies are integrated into the various activities and games, allowing teachers to easily use Learning Zone throughout the instructional day. Teacher Tools, which include the ability to create classes, add students, and select specific content for instruction (eliminating more difficult content for younger students), allows the teacher to control the instructional resources for each child while monitoring their progress.

Each level of Britannica Online School Edition provides similar access points and user information, which allows students to easily transition from using the elementary version to the middle school one. Because of the similarities in user access, functions, and directions, this online encyclopedia can easily be used by almost every student within a school district.

Teachers and librarians can set up the online encyclopedia to a specific level of student or allow students to access the entire program. Users can begin searching the entire program (which will result in a search of all levels of the encyclopedia at once) by entering a word or phrase in the Search Box. The returned results page will display content at the elementary, middle and high school levels.

Students who choose to select a particular level of encyclopedia will find the program provides a wide range of resources arranged in colorful, yet easily identifiable boxes on the Web page with content search topics listed. Subjects showcased on each search page include Important People, This Day in History, Feature Articles, Highlights, News Headlines, Discover America, and more specific items for each grade level such as the Britannica Blog for high school users and the Animal of the Day for elementary users. Regardless of level, each program allows users to easily search, browse, or become engaged in the content by typing in a search term or selecting an area of interest to explore.

Because Britannica Online School Edition covers content for students in grades PreK-12, students can simply begin their research within the appropriate level by accessing the encyclopedia's home page. However, by selecting a button at the bottom of the page, students or teachers may switch between the different levels of encyclopedias, thus making the content appropriate for every student in the class, regardless of ability.

Each of the three main levels has age-appropriate encyclopedia and magazine articles and student-friendly Internet links, videos, and time lines. The Compare Countries section allows students to compare two countries side by side through the use of the World Atlas and the Discover America feature.

Within the encyclopedia article pages, students can choose to print, email or save content. Information within the article results page also provides links to related images and media, magazines, and web sites selected by Britannica to supplement the encyclopedia information. Additionally, there are thousands of images and videos that can be downloaded and used in projects and presentations, making the use of Britannica Online School Edition a primary source to locate and utilize video clips and images for research assignments. Because resources can be cited through a citation tool—which automatically generates resource citations for articles, images, and videos—students will be less likely to use the Internet for multimedia content. Students and teachers can also save articles, media, web sites, and learning materials in the Workspace tool within Britannica by creating their own accounts to access their materials later.

The Unsure of Spelling checkbox at the top of the search page allows users to indicate when they might need help with spelling search terms—and the results from those queries are most often excellent! In addition, through the use of the Merriam-Webster dictionary within the database, students can easily click any word within an article to see an instant definition. By clicking the red speaker icon students can also hear the pronunciation of the word.

Teachers will appreciate the Curriculum Standards feature within Teacher Resources that allows them to select their subject area and grade level to view the standards for their particular state and then see the encyclopedia articles and student activities that support these standards.

Students at every level will find that Britannica Online School Edition provides quality online resources that not only answer the basic questions often asked when doing encyclopedia research, but also add multimedia content, images, and additional material that eliminate the need to search endlessly on the Internet for inferior resources.

Elementary teachers using the Learning Zone module will love the ability to select appropriate content for their specific classes, set up student work groups, and generate reports of students' progress. Additional content within the Learning Zone module, such as the Numbers and Shapes activities in the Play section, the videos in the Explore section, the vocabulary words and alphabet in the Read section, and the Drawing tools, make this component of the online encyclopedia a special addition for those schools serving preschool groups.

Without a doubt, Britannica Online School Edition provides resources above and beyond what most print encyclopedias could ever provide while engaging students in research that captivates their attention and encourages them to continue their search. Because of the wide-range of accessibility for students of all levels and abilities, as well as the flexibility to move within the encyclopedia to find the most appropriate content, Britannica's Online School Edition is definitely an A+ program.

The various components of the World Book Online Complete Suite provide for differentiated instruction. World Book Kids is designed for grades K-5; World Book Student for grades 4–9; World Discover is for grades 6–12; and World Book Advanced is designed for grades 8–12+.

There are two main World Book Web editions: The Complete Suite, which includes World Book Advanced, World Book Kids, World Book Student and Enciclopedia Estudiantil Hallazgos as well as the World Book Dictionary and Atlas; and the School and Library Edition, which includes all of the above, except for World Book Advanced. Other resources like World Book Discover can be added to a subscription; World Book Discover also is available standalone. Pricing is dependent on the subscription, add-on resources and other factors like the institution size. For additional information, contact World Book at 800-975-3250 (U.S.) or 800-837-5365 (Canada) or via World Book's dedicated school and library ordering site at: www.worldbookonline.com/sales.

Despite what images might flash through your mind when you hear the words World Book Encyclopedia, let it be known that "This ain't your momma's World Book!" Today's World Book Web provides librarians and teachers with the option of selecting from a variety of online resources to specifically meet the needs of their students. With four different programs for use with different levels and abilities (as well as two programs in both Spanish and French) the new versions of World Book have expanded to reach a widely diverse educational community in most any school district.

World Book is designed to meet the specific learning needs and styles of pre-kindergarten through primary age students. With content from the award winning World Book Student Discovery Encyclopedia, World Book Kids offers simpler navigation, thousands of colorful illustrations, diagrams, and maps, and dozens of activities tied to national curriculum standards. Designed specifically for younger students, World Book Kids provides them with a successful online learning experience that is both informative and fun. This program provides thousands of easy-to-read articles, beautiful illustrations and images, interactive games (through the Play It! module), teacher resources, printable worksheets for activities, and correlations to state and national curriculum standards.

World Book Student, the new version of World Book Reference Center, contains articles, multimedia, web sites, and much more. This comprehensive site includes all the articles from the 22-volume print set, more than 20,000 photos, maps, videos and sound clips, a biography center that provides information on important people, a collection of research tools such as a time line builder, individual research accounts that allow users to save their articles and content, and a research wizard that provides information about how to do a research assignment. Additional content such as the comprehensive atlas and dictionary make fast fact gathering a matter of a simple click.

Correlated content that is aligned with state standards helps teachers to implement the use of the encyclopedia in their lesson plans while high-interest, and easy-to-read content will inspire students to investigate topics of interest.

World Book Advanced provides comprehensive primary and secondary source information for students in grades 8 and up. Containing more than 1.3 million pages of primary sources including books and documents that are fully integrated into the encyclopedia content, World Book Advanced offers students in high school and above the ability to utilize a fully functional resource that extends beyond the printed volumes.

Research and teaching tools within the database include time lines, citation builder, current magazine selections, classroom activities, lesson plans, discussion guides, and saved research options. Depending upon the type of research required, World Book Advanced offers extensive content that directly relates to the advanced learner, while integrating digital content and multimedia that expands research options.

Uniquely designed Pathfinders within the encyclopedia allow teachers and librarians to create lesson plans aligned specifically with instructional content while utilizing the encyclopedia's resources fully. Other features include the student's ability to search across content collections including primary sources, thousands of ebooks, encyclopedia articles, videos, images, Web sites, and much more. The ability to customize the interface and personalize content also allows users to become actively engaged in working within the encyclopedia during the research process.

World Book Discover is a new resource designed specifically for students who read below the level of their peers. This latest addition to the World Book Web provides content, tools, and features to help bridge the achievement gap and support differentiated instruction. World Book Discover features read-aloud and translation capabilities, more video, and clear, easy-to-read articles. Among the key features of World Book Discover are its easy-to-read articles on topics that interest older students accompanied by reading comprehension questions to help readers focus on key concepts. A text-to-speech feature allows students to hear text read aloud. For visual learners, World Book Discover includes a visual dictionary with text in English, Spanish, and French along with World Book Explains, a searchable video series that features experts from NASA, Disney, Sea World, the National Park Service, Carnegie Hall, and other notable institutions. These videos answer students' questions on topics ranging from how big the galaxy is to how dolphins communicate. For students who may be more comfortable in a language other than English, World Book Discover includes text-translation capabilities in more than a dozen languages.

Another unique feature of World Book Discover is a comprehensive section focused on life skills, covering such topics as buying and maintaining a car, applying for a job, budgeting, arranging housing, and understanding health-care issues. This feature provides both students and instructors with the ability to extend lesson plans to real-life activities that will engage and educate those who specifically need this type of daily living skill. As an add-on product or a stand-alone program, World Book Discover provides the perfect set of resources for those students with unique needs and differentiated abilities.

Each of the online encyclopedia programs provides an age-appropriate, uncluttered Web page that is both intuitive and easily navigated. The ability to email, save, and cite sources are available in each of the encyclopedia programs, and intuitive boxes containing suggested search topics are found at each level to assist the browser. Search options are available in multiple formats in the World Book Student, the World Book Discover, and the World Book Advanced editions, including the Search Box; the Advanced Search that contains limiters; suggested Search Content types; specialized components such as Biography Center search; and the ability to search for specific content such as video clips, sounds, or images. The World Book Kids edition provides more visual search elements and prompts, such as "Atlas," the talking dog who helps to guide young users in mining the program.

Each online encyclopedia program allows the users to move between the various levels of databases by selecting a different subscription program from the icons listed at the bottom of each home page. This option provides a user who needs additional information to search in a more advanced program for information or for a user to drop down one level if they find the material too advanced.

Options within the different levels of encyclopedia (except for the World Book Kids version) also allow for students to create their own workspace known as My Research to save content. Students can create their own accounts with their own usernames and passwords to save articles, images, videos, and other content for access at any location at a later time.

World Book Web provides several unique elements that enhance the use of its product by students for their library or classroom research. Among some of the more interesting features within each level include: The Life Skills component offered as part of World Book Discover, which helps students with topics such as how to open a bank account. World Book Explains, a part of Discover, is a video series that provides visual answers for struggling readers. How to do Research, offered both as part of World Book Student and World Book Discover, provides both a student and educator section. Students can learn how to do a research assignment while educators can learn how to enhance the research projects. The Biography Center, a new feature in World Book Student, includes a searchable database of more than 10,000 biographies on curriculum topics, a great addition to any library, especially for those class projects that include investigating unique individuals. The Timeline Builder, in both World Book Student and World Book Advanced, allows users to build their own time lines or view already prepared ones. Search Results across primary and secondary resources in World Book Advanced include full-text ebooks. The Hands-on Activities, offered as part of World Book Kids, allows students to act out their research assignments.

Librarians and teachers will be extremely pleased with the content and presentation of each of the components of the World Book Web program. Because of the various levels of content available, teachers will find that this product can meet the needs of the wide-range of student abilities within the same classroom. Correlated state and national standards will help educators to quickly determine how to use World Book Web in their lesson plans. The ability to locate and teach with primary documents is a big plus for many teachers who want quality content accessible in one convenient location.

Students at every level will find that World Book Web provides the type of resources they need—when they need them. Because content is searchable at various levels, students at every level will be able to complete projects with less frustration and lost time. Additional options such as the My Research site will help keep users organized as they gather their resources for research, while allowing access to that content regardless of where they might be.

World Book Web has reached out to teachers and librarians by creating a unique package of products that extends beyond the regular print encyclopedia. Rather than a one-size-fits-all product, World Book Web provides content that meets a wide variety of users within a wide variety of places during their educational years. Through unique presentation options, including the World Book Discover, this encyclopedia balances quality information with daily life to provide much more than just a quick reference tool. As an online reference resource that has been a staple in most school libraries, World Book Web has blossomed into a much more interactive and vibrant component. This transformation makes World Book Web an A+ program.