Encyclopædia Britannica

The is a general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, which spans 32 volumes and 32,640 pages, was the last printed edition. Since 2016, it has been published exclusively as an online encyclopaedia.

Printed for 244 years, the ''Britannica'' was the longest-running in-print encyclopaedia in the English language. It was first published between 1768 and 1771 in Edinburgh, Scotland, in three volumes. The encyclopaedia grew in size; the second edition was 10 volumes, and by its fourth edition (1801–1810), it had expanded to 20 volumes. Its rising stature as a scholarly work helped recruit eminent contributors, and the 9th (1875–1889) and 11th editions (1911) are landmark encyclopaedias for scholarship and literary style. Starting with the 11th edition and following its acquisition by an American firm, the ''Britannica'' shortened and simplified articles to broaden its appeal to the North American market.

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. In the 21st century, the ''Britannica'' suffered first from competition with the digital multimedia encyclopaedia Microsoft ''Encarta'', and later with the online peer-produced encyclopaedia Wikipedia.

In March 2012, it announced it would no longer publish printed editions and would focus instead on the online version.

The 15th edition (1974–2010) has a three-part structure: a 12-volume of short articles (generally fewer than 750 words), a 17-volume of long articles (two to 310 pages), and a single volume to give a hierarchical outline of knowledge. The was meant for quick fact-checking and as a guide to the ; readers are advised to study the outline to understand a subject's context and to find more detailed articles. Over 70 years, the size of the ''Britannica'' has remained steady, with about 40 million words on half a million topics. Though published in the United States since 1901, the ''Britannica'' has for the most part maintained British English spelling.

History

Past owners have included, in chronological order, the Edinburgh, Scotland-based printers Colin Macfarquhar and Andrew Bell, Scottish bookseller Archibald Constable, Scottish publisher A & C Black, Horace Everett Hooper, Sears Roebuck, William Benton, and Jacqui Safra, a Swiss billionaire of New York.

Recent advances in information technology and the rise of electronic encyclopaedias such as Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite, ''Encarta'' and Wikipedia have reduced the demand for print encyclopaedias. To remain competitive, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. has stressed the reputation of the ''Britannica'', reduced its price and production costs, and developed electronic versions on CD-ROM, DVD, and the World Wide Web. Since the early 1930s, the company has promoted spin-off reference works. Aside from providing a summary of the ''Britannica'' history and early spin-off products, this article also describes the life-cycle of a typical ''Britannica'' edition. A new edition typically begins with strong sales that decay as the encyclopaedia becomes outdated. When work on a new edition is begun, sales of the old edition stop, just when fiscal needs are greatest: a new editorial staff must be assembled, articles commissioned. Elkan Harrison Powell identified this fluctuation of income as a danger to any encyclopaedia, one he hoped to overcome with continuous revision.

Editions

The ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'' has been issued in 15 editions, with multi-volume supplements to the 3rd and 4th editions (see the Table below). The 5th and 6th editions were reprints of the 4th, and the 10th edition was only a supplement to the 9th, just as the 12th and 13th editions were supplements to the 11th. The 15th underwent massive reorganization in 1985, but the updated, current version is still known as the 15th. The 14th and 15th editions were edited every year throughout their runs, so that later printings of each were entirely different from early ones.

Throughout history, the ''Britannica'' has had two aims: to be an excellent reference book, and to provide educational material. In 1974, the 15th edition adopted a third goal: to systematize all human knowledge. The history of the ''Britannica'' can be divided into five eras, punctuated by changes in management, or reorganization of the dictionary.

1768–1826

In the first era (1st–6th editions, 1768–1826), the ''Britannica'' was managed and published by its founders, Colin Macfarquhar and Andrew Bell, by Archibald Constable, and by others. The ''Britannica'' was first published between December 1768 and 1771 in Edinburgh as the ''Encyclopædia Britannica, or, A Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, compiled upon a New Plan''. In part, it was conceived in reaction to the French ''Encyclopédie'' of Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert (published 1751–1772), which had been inspired by Chambers's ''Cyclopaedia'' (first edition 1728). It went on sale 10 December.

The ''Britannica'' of this period was primarily a Scottish enterprise, and it is one of the most enduring legacies of the Scottish Enlightenment. In this era, the ''Britannica'' moved from being a three-volume set (1st edition) compiled by one young editor— William Smellie—to a 20-volume set written by numerous authorities. Several other encyclopaedias competed throughout this period, among them editions of Abraham Rees's ''Cyclopædia'' and Coleridge's ''Encyclopædia Metropolitana'' and David Brewster's '' Edinburgh Encyclopædia''.

1827–1901

During the second era (7th–9th editions, 1827–1901), the ''Britannica'' was managed by the Edinburgh publishing firm A & C Black. Although some contributors were again recruited through friendships of the chief editors, notably Macvey Napier, others were attracted by the ''Britannica'' reputation. The contributors often came from other countries and included the world's most respected authorities in their fields. A general index of all articles was included for the first time in the 7th edition, a practice maintained until 1974.

Production of the 9th edition was overseen by Thomas Spencer Baynes, the first English-born editor-in-chief. Dubbed the "Scholar's Edition", the 9th edition is the most scholarly of all ''Britannicas''. After 1880, Baynes was assisted by William Robertson Smith. No biographies of living persons were included. James Clerk Maxwell and Thomas Huxley were special advisors on science. However, by the close of the 19th century, the 9th edition was outdated, and the ''Britannica'' faced financial difficulties.

1901–1973

In the third era (10th–14th editions, 1901–1973), the ''Britannica'' was managed by American businessmen who introduced direct marketing and door-to-door sales. The American owners gradually simplified articles, making them less scholarly for a mass market. The 10th edition was an eleven-volume supplement (including one each of maps and an index) to the 9th, numbered as volumes 25–35, but the 11th edition was a completely new work; its owner, Horace Hooper, lavished enormous effort on the project.

When Hooper fell into financial difficulties, the ''Britannica'' was managed by Sears Roebuck for 18 years (1920–1923, 1928–1943). In 1932, the vice-president of Sears, Elkan Harrison Powell, assumed presidency of the ''Britannica''; in 1936, he began the policy of continuous revision. This was a departure from earlier practice, in which the articles were not changed until a new edition was produced, at roughly 25-year intervals, some articles unchanged from earlier editions. Powell developed new educational products that built upon the ''Britannica'' reputation.

In 1943, Sears donated the to the University of Chicago. William Benton, then a vice president of the university, provided the working capital for its operation. The stock was divided between Benton and the university, with the university holding an option on the stock. Benton became chairman of the board and managed the ''Britannica'' until his death in 1973. Benton set up the Benton Foundation, which managed the ''Britannica'' until 1996, and whose sole beneficiary was the University of Chicago. In 1968, the ''Britannica'' celebrated its bicentennial.

1974–1994

In the fourth era (1974–1994), the ''Britannica'' introduced its 15th edition, which was reorganized into three parts: the , the , and the . Under Mortimer J. Adler (member of the Board of Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica since its inception in 1949, and its chair from 1974; director of editorial planning for the 15th edition of ''Britannica'' from 1965), the ''Britannica'' sought not only to be a good reference work and educational tool, but to systematize all human knowledge. The absence of a separate index and the grouping of articles into parallel encyclopaedias (the and ) provoked a "firestorm of criticism" of the initial 15th edition. In response, the 15th edition was completely reorganized and indexed for a re-release in 1985. This second version of the 15th edition continued to be published and revised through the release of the 2010 print version. The official title of the 15th edition is the ''New Encyclopædia Britannica'', although it has also been promoted as ''Britannica 3''.

On 9 March 1976 the US Federal Trade Commission entered an opinion and order enjoining Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. from using: a) deceptive advertising practices in recruiting sales agents and obtaining sales leads, and b) deceptive sales practices in the door-to-door presentations of its sales agents.

1994–present

In the fifth era (1994–present), digital versions have been developed and released on optical media and online.

In 1996, the ''Britannica'' was bought by Jacqui Safra at well below its estimated value, owing to the company's financial difficulties. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. split in 1999. One part retained the company name and developed the print version, and the other, Britannica.com Incorporated, developed digital versions. Since 2001, the two companies have shared a CEO, Ilan Yeshua, who has continued Powell's strategy of introducing new products with the ''Britannica'' name. In March 2012, Britannica's president, Jorge Cauz, announced that it would not produce any new print editions of the encyclopaedia, with the 2010 15th edition being the last. The company will focus only on the online edition and other educational tools.

''Britannica'' final print edition was in 2010, a 32-volume set. ''Britannica Global Edition'' was also printed in 2010, containing 30 volumes and 18,251 pages, with 8,500 photographs, maps, flags, and illustrations in smaller "compact" volumes, as well as over 40,000 articles written by scholars from across the world, including Nobel Prize winners. Unlike the 15th edition, it did not contain and sections, but ran A through Z as all editions up through the 14th had. The following is ''Britannica'' description of the work:

In 2020, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. released the ''Britannica All New Children's Encyclopedia: What We Know and What We Don't'', an encyclopaedia aimed primarily at younger readers, covering major topics. The encyclopedia was widely praised for bringing back the print format. It was ''Britannica'''s first encyclopaedia for children since 1984.

Dedications

The ''Britannica'' was dedicated to the reigning British monarch from 1788 to 1901 and then, upon its sale to an American partnership, to the British monarch and the President of the United States. Thus, the 11th edition is "dedicated by Permission to His Majesty George the Fifth, King of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, Emperor of India, and to William Howard Taft, President of the United States of America." The order of the dedications has changed with the relative power of the United States and Britain, and with relative sales; the 1954 version of the 14th edition is "Dedicated by Permission to the Heads of the Two English-Speaking Peoples, Dwight David Eisenhower, President of the United States of America, and Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Second."

Print version

From 1985, the ''Britannica'' consisted of four parts: the , the , the , and a two-volume index. The ''Britannica'' articles are contained in the and , which encompass 12 and 17 volumes, respectively, each volume having roughly one thousand pages. The 2007 has 699 in-depth articles, ranging in length from two pages to 310 pages, with references and named contributors. In contrast, the 2007 has roughly 65,000 articles, the vast majority (about 97%) of which contain fewer than 750 words, no references, and no named contributors. The articles are intended for quick fact-checking and to help in finding more thorough information in the . The articles are meant as authoritative, well-written commentaries on their subjects, as well as storehouses of information not covered elsewhere. 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.

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

The core of the is its "Outline of Knowledge", which aims to provide a logical framework for all human knowledge. Accordingly, the Outline is consulted by the ''Britannica'' editors to decide which articles should be included in the and . 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. However, libraries have found that it is scarcely used for this purpose, and reviewers have recommended that it be dropped from the encyclopaedia. The contains colour transparencies of human anatomy and several appendices listing the staff members, advisors, and contributors to all three parts of the ''Britannica''.

Taken together, the and comprise roughly 40 million words and 24,000 images. The two-volume index has 2,350 pages, listing the 228,274 topics covered in the ''Britannica'', together with 474,675 subentries under those topics. The ''Britannica'' generally prefers British spelling over American; for example, it uses ''colour'' (not ''color''), ''centre'' (not ''center''), and ''encyclopaedia'' (not ''encyclopedia''). There are some exceptions to this rule, such as ''defense'' rather than ''defence''. Common alternative spellings are provided with cross-references such as "Color: ''see'' Colour."

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

The alphabetization of articles in the and follows strict rules. 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. 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. There were 12,000 sets of the 2010 edition printed, of which 8,000 had been sold by March 2012. By late April 2012, the remaining copies of the 2010 edition had sold out at Britannica's online store. , a replica of Britannica's 1768 first edition is available via the online store.

Related printed material

''Britannica Junior'' was first published in 1934 as 12 volumes. It was expanded to 15 volumes in 1947, and renamed ''Britannica Junior Encyclopædia'' in 1963. It was taken off the market after the 1984 printing.

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

In 1961, a 16-volume ''Young Children's Encyclopaedia'' was issued for children just learning to read. ''My First Britannica'' is aimed at children ages six to 12, and the ''Britannica Discovery Library'' is for children aged three to six (issued 1974 to 1991). ''Compton's by Britannica'', first published in 2007, incorporating the former '' Compton's Encyclopedia'', is aimed at 10- to 17-year-olds and consists of 26 volumes and 11,000 pages.

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

Since 1938, Encyclopædia 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).

Optical disc, online, and mobile versions

The '' Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite 2012 DVD'' contains over 100,000 articles. This includes regular ''Britannica'' articles, as well as others drawn from the ''Britannica Student Encyclopædia'', and the ''Britannica Elementary Encyclopædia.'' 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. It has daily features, updates and links to news reports from ''The New York Times'' and the BBC. , roughly 60% of Encyclopædia Britannica's revenue came from online operations, of which around 15% came from subscriptions to the consumer version of the websites. , subscriptions were available on a yearly, monthly or weekly basis. 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.

On 20 February 2007, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. announced that it was working with mobile phone search company AskMeNow to launch a mobile encyclopaedia. Users would be able to send a question via text message, and AskMeNow would search ''Britannica'' 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. Approved contributions would be credited, though contributing automatically grants Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. perpetual, irrevocable licence to those contributions.

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 would not be affected by the changes. Individuals wishing to edit the ''Britannica'' website would have to register under their real name and address prior to editing or submitting their content. All edits submitted would be reviewed and checked and will have to be approved by the encyclopaedia's professional staff. Contributions from non-academic users would sit in a separate section from the expert-generated ''Britannica'' content, as would content submitted by non-''Britannica'' scholars. Articles written by users, if vetted and approved, would also only be available in a special section of the website, separate from the professional articles. Official ''Britannica'' material would carry a "Britannica Checked" stamp, to distinguish it from the user-generated content.

On 14 September 2010, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. announced a partnership with mobile phone development company Concentric Sky to launch a series of iPhone products aimed at the K–12 market. On 20 July 2011, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. announced that Concentric Sky had ported the Britannica Kids product line to Intel's Intel Atom-based Netbooks and on 26 October 2011 that it had launched its encyclopaedia as an iPad app. In 2010, Britannica released Britannica ImageQuest, a database of images.

In March 2012, it was announced that the company would cease printing the encyclopaedia set, and that it would focus on its online version.

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. Britannica Insights was also available as a Firefox extension but this was taken down due to a code review issue.

Personnel and management

Contributors

The print version of the ''Britannica'' has 4,411 contributors, many eminent in their fields, such as Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman, astronomer Carl Sagan, and surgeon Michael DeBakey. Roughly a quarter of the contributors are deceased, some as long ago as 1947 (Alfred North Whitehead), while another quarter are retired or emeritus. Most (approximately 98%) contribute to only a single article; however, 64 contributed to three articles, 23 contributed to four articles, 10 contributed to five articles, and 8 contributed to more than five articles. An exceptionally prolific contributor is Christine Sutton of the University of Oxford, who contributed 24 articles on particle physics.

While ''Britannica'' authors have included writers such as Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, and Leon Trotsky, as well as notable independent encyclopaedists such as Isaac Asimov, some have been criticized for lack of expertise. In 1911, the historian George L. Burr wrote:

Staff

in the 15th edition of ''Britannica'', Dale Hoiberg, a sinologist, was listed as ''Britannica'' Senior Vice President and editor-in-chief. Among his predecessors as editors-in-chief were Hugh Chisholm (1902–1924), James Louis Garvin (1926–1932), Franklin Henry Hooper (1932–1938), Walter Yust (1938–1960), Harry Ashmore (1960–1963), Warren E. Preece (1964–1968, 1969–1975), Sir William Haley (1968–1969), Philip W. Goetz (1979–1991), and Robert McHenry (1992–1997). Anita Wolff was listed as the Deputy Editor and Theodore Pappas as Executive Editor. Prior Executive Editors include John V. Dodge (1950–1964) and Philip W. Goetz.

Paul T. Armstrong remains the longest working employee of Encyclopædia Britannica. He began his career there in 1934, eventually earning the positions of treasurer, vice president, and chief financial officer in his 58 years with the company, before retiring in 1992.

The 2007 editorial staff of the ''Britannica'' included five Senior Editors and nine Associate Editors, supervised by Dale Hoiberg and four others. The editorial staff helped to write the articles of the and some sections of the .

Editorial advisors

As of 2012, ''Britannica'' had an editorial board of advisors, which included a number of distinguished figures, primarily scholars from a variety of disciplines.

The ''Propædia'' and its ''Outline of Knowledge'' were produced by dozens of editorial advisors under the direction of Mortimer J. Adler. Roughly half of these advisors have since died, including some of the Outline's chief architects – Rene Dubos (d. 1982), Loren Eiseley (d. 1977), Harold D. Lasswell (d. 1978), Mark Van Doren (d. 1972), Peter Ritchie Calder (d. 1982) and Mortimer J. Adler (d. 2001). The also lists just under 4,000 advisors who were consulted for the unsigned articles.

Corporate structure

During much of the 20th century, the ''Britannica'' had a significant ownership stake from the University of Chicago, with many people associated with the university serving senior positions in the organisation.^331-332 During the mid 20th century, managers and executives at the ''Britannica'' company were lavishly rewarded due to the healthy profit encyclopedia sales generated, with division managers at the top of the sales organisation earning an average salary of $125,000 in 1958 ($ around in current USD adjusted for inflation).³²⁹

From 1974, the company was controlled by the Benton Foundation, of which the University of Chicago was the sole beneficiary. In January 1996, the ''Britannica'' was purchased from the Benton Foundation by billionaire Swiss financier Jacqui Safra, who serves as its current chair of the board. In 1997, Don Yannias, a long-time associate and investment advisor of Safra, became CEO of Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

In 1999, a new company, Britannica.com Incorporated, was created to develop digital versions of the ''Britannica''; Yannias assumed the role of CEO in the new company, while his former position at the parent company remained vacant for two years. Yannias' tenure at Britannica.com Incorporated was marked by missteps, considerable lay-offs, and financial losses. In 2001, Yannias was replaced by Ilan Yeshua, who reunited the leadership of the two companies. Yannias later returned to investment management, but remains on the ''Britannica'' Board of Directors.

In 2003, former management consultant Jorge Aguilar-Cauz was appointed President of Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Cauz is the senior executive and reports directly to the ''Britannica'' Board of Directors. Cauz has been pursuing alliances with other companies and extending the ''Britannica'' brand to new educational and reference products, continuing the strategy pioneered by former CEO Elkan Harrison Powell in the mid-1930s.

Sales and marketing

Although prior to 1920 the ''Britannica'' was primarily sold by mail-order, after that time the ''Britannica'' was almost exclusively sold by door-to-door salesmen, who often used high-pressure sales tactics or outright deception in order to secure purchases of the expensive work,Einbinder, Harvey '' The Myth of the Britannica''. New York: Grove Press, 1964 (OCLC 152581687)/ London: MacGibbon & Kee, 1964 (OCLC 807782651) / New York: Johnson Reprint Corp., 1972. (OCLC 286856)^317-330 from which they gained a significant commission, which in the United States in 1971 was $120–200 (around $-$ adjusted for inflation) per sale. These high-pressure sales tactics resulted in high levels of turnover among ''Britannica'' salesmen, with the company often exaggerating the ease of making a sale to employees, as well as engaging in deceptive job advertising in order to entice people to become salesmen.^317-330 The ''Britannica'' was sued several times by the American Federal Trade Commission for deceptive practices.^317-330 These practices were common among American encyclopedia companies.^317-330 The development of the significant sales force began in 1932, with most senior leadership of the company by the late 20th century coming from the sales division.

While early on the ''Britannica'' was marketed to adults and in particular during the 19th and early 20th centuries, to an elite educated audience,^152-153 by the mid 20th century, the ''Britannica'' (as well as other American encyclopedias) were primarily marketed to middle-class parents who wished to seek a good education for their children, despite the text not being aimed at a child's reading level.^317-330 During the 20th century, the ''Britannica'' differentiated itself from other encyclopedias by using its long pedigree to present itself as a premium brand. Once the encyclopedia was purchased, it was often little read by its buyers.

Competition

As the ''Britannica'' is a general encyclopaedia, it does not seek to compete with specialized encyclopaedias such as the '' Encyclopaedia of Mathematics'' or the ''Dictionary of the Middle Ages'', which can devote much more space to their chosen topics. In its first years, the ''Britannica'' main competitor was the general encyclopaedia of Ephraim Chambers and, soon thereafter, ''Rees's Cyclopædia'' and Coleridge's ''Encyclopædia Metropolitana''. In the 20th century, successful competitors included ''Collier's Encyclopedia'', the ''Encyclopedia Americana'', and the ''World Book Encyclopedia''. Nevertheless, from the 9th edition onwards, the ''Britannica'' was widely considered to have the greatest authority of any general English-language encyclopaedia, especially because of its broad coverage and eminent authors. The print version of the ''Britannica'' was significantly more expensive than its competitors.

Since the early 1990s, the ''Britannica'' has faced new challenges from digital information sources. The Internet, facilitated by the development of search engines, has grown into a common source of information for many people, and provides easy access to reliable original sources and expert opinions, thanks in part to initiatives such as Google Books, MIT's release of its educational materials and the open PubMed Central library of the National Library of Medicine.

The Internet tends to provide more current coverage than print media, due to the ease with which material on the Internet can be updated. In rapidly changing fields such as science, technology, politics, culture and modern history, the ''Britannica'' has struggled to stay up to date, a problem first analysed systematically by its former editor Walter Yust. Eventually, the ''Britannica'' turned to focus more on its online edition.

Print encyclopaedias

The has been compared with other print encyclopaedias, both qualitatively and quantitatively. A well-known comparison is that of Kenneth Kister, who gave a qualitative and quantitative comparison of the 1993 ''Britannica'' with two comparable encyclopaedias, ''Collier's Encyclopedia'' and the ''Encyclopedia Americana''. For the quantitative analysis, ten articles were selected at random—circumcision, Charles Drew, Galileo, Philip Glass, heart disease, IQ, panda bear, sexual harassment, Shroud of Turin and Uzbekistan—and letter grades of A–D or F were awarded in four categories: coverage, accuracy, clarity, and recency. In all four categories and for all three encyclopaedias, the four average grades fell between B− and B+, chiefly because none of the encyclopaedias had an article on sexual harassment in 1994. In the accuracy category, the ''Britannica'' received one "D" and seven "A"s, ''Encyclopedia Americana'' received eight "A"s, and ''Collier's'' received one "D" and seven "A"s; thus, ''Britannica'' received an average score of 92% for accuracy to ''Americana'' 95% and ''Collier's'' 92%. In the timeliness category, ''Britannica'' averaged an 86% to ''Americanas 90% and ''Collier's'' 85%.

Digital encyclopaedias on optical media

The most notable competitor of the ''Britannica'' among CD/DVD-ROM digital encyclopaedias was ''Encarta'', now discontinued, a modern multimedia encyclopaedia that incorporated three print encyclopaedias: ''Funk & Wagnalls'', ''Collier's,'' and the ''New Merit Scholar's Encyclopedia''. ''Encarta'' was the top-selling multimedia encyclopaedia, based on total US retail sales from January 2000 to February 2006. Both occupied the same price range, with the '' 2007 Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate'' CD or DVD costing US$40–50 and the Microsoft Encarta Premium 2007 DVD costing US$45.

The ''Britannica'' disc contains 100,000 articles and '' Merriam-Webster's Dictionary and Thesaurus'' (US only) and offers primary and secondary school editions. ''Encarta'' contained 66,000 articles, a user-friendly Visual Browser, interactive maps, math, language, and homework tools, a US and UK dictionary, and a youth edition. Like ''Encarta'', the digital ''Britannica'' has been criticized for being biased towards United States audiences; the United Kingdom-related articles are updated less often, maps of the United States are more detailed than those of other countries, and it lacks a UK dictionary. Like the ''Britannica'', ''Encarta'' was available online by subscription, although some content could be accessed for free.

Wikipedia

The main online alternative to ''Britannica'' is Wikipedia. The key differences between the two lie in accessibility; the model of participation they bring to an encyclopedic project; their respective style sheets and editorial policies; relative ages; the number of subjects treated; the number of languages in which articles are written and made available; and their underlying economic models: unlike ''Britannica'', Wikipedia is not-for-profit, does not carry advertising on its site, and is not connected with traditional profit- and contract-based publishing distribution networks.

''Britannica''s articles either have known authorship or a set of possible authors (the editorial staff). With the exception of the editorial staff, most ''Britannica'' contributors are experts in their field—some are Nobel laureates. By contrast, the articles on Wikipedia are written by people of unknown degrees of expertise; most do not claim any particular expertise, and of those who do, many are anonymous and have no verifiable credentials. It is for this lack of institutional vetting or certification that former ''Britannica'' editor-in-chief Robert McHenry noted his belief in 2004 that Wikipedia could not hope to rival the ''Britannica'' in accuracy.

In 2005, the journal ''Nature'' chose articles from both websites in a wide range of science topics and sent them to what it called "relevant" field experts for peer review. The experts then compared the competing articles—one from each site on a given topic—side by side, but were not told which article came from which site. ''Nature'' got back 42 usable reviews. The journal found just eight serious errors, such as general misunderstandings of vital concepts: four from each site. It also discovered many factual errors, omissions or misleading statements: 162 in Wikipedia and 123 in ''Britannica'', an average of 3.86 mistakes per article for Wikipedia and 2.92 for ''Britannica''.

Although ''Britannica ''was revealed as the more accurate encyclopaedia, with fewer errors, in its rebuttal, it called ''Natures study flawed and misleading and called for a "prompt" retraction. It noted that two of the articles in the study were taken from a ''Britannica'' yearbook and not the encyclopaedia, and another two were from ''Compton's Encyclopedia'' (called the ''Britannica Student Encyclopedia'' on the company's website).

''Nature'' defended its story and declined to retract, stating that, as it was comparing Wikipedia with the web version of ''Britannica'', it used whatever relevant material was available on ''Britannica'' website. Interviewed in February 2009, the managing director of ''Britannica UK'' said:

For the 15th anniversary of Wikipedia, the ''Telegraph'' published two opinion pieces which compared Wikipedia to ''Britannica'' and falsely claimed that ''Britannica'' had gone bankrupt in 1996. In a January 2016 press release, ''Britannica'' responded by calling Wikipedia "an impressive achievement" but argued that critics should avoid "false comparisons" to ''Britannica'' in terms of differing models and purposes.

Critical and popular assessments

Reputation

Since the 3rd edition, the ''Britannica'' has enjoyed a popular and critical reputation for general excellence, though this reputation has not been without its critics. The 3rd and 9th editions were pirated for sale in the United States, beginning with ''Dobson's Encyclopædia''. On the release of the 14th edition, ''Time'' magazine dubbed the ''Britannica'' the "Patriarch of the Library". In a related advertisement, naturalist William Beebe was quoted as saying that the ''Britannica'' was "beyond comparison because there is no competitor". References to the ''Britannica'' can be found throughout English literature, most notably in one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle favourite Sherlock Holmes stories, "The Red-Headed League". The tale was highlighted by the Lord Mayor of London, Gilbert Inglefield, at the bicentennial of the ''Britannica''.

The ''Britannica'' has a reputation for summarizing knowledge. To further their education, some people have devoted themselves to reading the entire ''Britannica'', taking anywhere from three to 22 years to do so. When Fat'h Ali became the Shah of Persia in 1797, he was given a set of the ''Britannica'' 3rd edition; after reading the complete set, he extended his royal title to include "Most Formidable Lord and Master of the ".

Writer George Bernard Shaw has claimed to have read the complete 9th edition, except for the science articles; Richard Evelyn Byrd took the ''Britannica'' as reading material for his five-month stay at the South Pole in 1934; and Philip Beaver read it during a sailing expedition. More recently, A. J. Jacobs, an editor at ''Esquire'' magazine, read the entire 2002 version of the 15th edition, describing his experiences in the well-received 2004 book '' The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World''. Only two people are known to have read two independent editions: the author C. S. Forester and Amos Urban Shirk, an American businessman who read the 11th and 14th editions, devoting roughly three hours per night for four and a half years to read the 11th.

Awards

The CD/DVD-ROM version of the ''Britannica'', '' Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite'', received the 2004 Distinguished Achievement Award from the Association of Educational Publishers. On 15 July 2009, was awarded a spot as one of "Top Ten Superbrands in the UK" by a panel of more than 2,000 independent reviewers, as reported by the BBC.

Coverage of topics

Topics are chosen in part by reference to the "Outline of Knowledge". The bulk of the 15th edition of the ''Britannica'' is devoted to geography (26% of the ), biography (14%), biology and medicine (11%), literature (7%), physics and astronomy (6%), religion (5%), art (4%), Western philosophy (4%), and law (3%). A complementary study of the found that geography accounted for 25% of articles, science 18%, social sciences 17%, biography 17%, and all other humanities 25%. Writing in 1992, one reviewer judged that the "range, depth, and catholicity of coverage f the ''Britannica''are unsurpassed by any other general Encyclopaedia."

The ''Britannica'' does not cover topics in equal detail; for example, the whole of Buddhism and most other religions is covered in a single article, whereas 14 articles are devoted to Christianity, comprising nearly half of all religion articles. The ''Britannica'' covers 50,479 biographies, 5,999 of them about women, with 11.87% being British citizens and 25.51% US citizens. However, the ''Britannica'' has been lauded as the ''least'' biased of general Encyclopaedias marketed to Western readers and praised for its biographies of important women of all eras.

Criticism of editorial decisions

Harvey Einbinder in the ''Myth of the Britannica'' criticised the 11th edition for the inaccessibility of the text for laymen, saying that many of its articles were too technical for people unfamiliar to the subject to understand.^152-153 He made similar criticisms of many of the mathematics and science articles of the then-current 14th edition.^236-250

On rare occasions, the ''Britannica'' has been criticized for its editorial choices. Given its roughly constant size, the encyclopaedia has needed to reduce or eliminate some topics to accommodate others, resulting in controversial decisions. The initial 15th edition (1974–1985) was faulted for having reduced or eliminated coverage of children's literature, military decorations, and the French poet Joachim du Bellay; editorial mistakes were also alleged, such as inconsistent sorting of Japanese biographies. Its elimination of the index was condemned, as was the apparently arbitrary division of articles into the and . Summing up, one critic called the initial 15th edition a "qualified failure ... hatcares more for juggling its format than for preserving." More recently, reviewers from the American Library Association were surprised to find that most educational articles had been eliminated from the 1992 , along with the article on psychology. Harvey Einbinder in ''The Myth of the Britannica'' criticised the practice of condensing entries in the 14th edition, which usually involved simply removing large amounts of the text rather than attempting to condense it by rewriting, resulting in what he considered to be considerable reduction in the quality of the articles.^151-168

Some very few ''Britannica''-appointed contributors are mistaken. A notorious instance from the ''Britannica'' early years is the rejection of Newtonian gravity by George Gleig, the chief editor of the 3rd edition (1788–1797), who wrote that gravity was caused by the classical element of fire. The ''Britannica'' has also staunchly defended a scientific approach to cultural topics, as it did with William Robertson Smith's articles on religion in the 9th edition, particularly his article stating that the Bible was not historically accurate (1875).

Other criticisms

The ''Britannica'' has received criticism, particularly as editions become outdated. It is expensive to produce a completely new edition of the ''Britannica'', and its editors delay for as long as fiscally sensible (usually about 25 years).

For example, despite continuous revision, the 14th edition became outdated after 35 years (1929–1964). When American physicist Harvey Einbinder detailed its failings in his 1964 book, ''The Myth of the Britannica'', the encyclopaedia was provoked to produce the 15th edition, which required 10 years of work. Editors have struggled at times to keep the ''Britannica'' current: one 1994 critic writes, "It is not difficult to find articles that are out-of-date or in need of revision", noting that the longer articles are more likely to be outdated than the shorter articles. Information in the is sometimes inconsistent with the corresponding article(s), mainly because of the failure to update one or the other. The bibliographies of the articles have been criticized for being more out-of-date than the articles themselves.

In 2005, a 12-year-old schoolboy in Britain found several inaccuracies in the ''Britannica'' entries on Poland and wildlife in Eastern Europe. In 2010, an entry about the Irish Civil War, which incorrectly described it as having been fought between the north and south of Ireland, was discussed in the Irish press following a decision by the Department of Education and Science to pay for online access.

Writing about the 3rd edition (1788–1797), ''Britannica'' chief editor George Gleig observed that "perfection seems to be incompatible with the nature of works constructed on such a plan and embracing such a variety of subjects." In March 2006, the ''Britannica'' wrote, "we in no way mean to imply that ''Britannica'' is error-free; we have never made such a claim". However, the ''Britannica'' sales department had previously made a well-known claim in 1962 regarding the 14th edition that " is truth. It is unquestionable fact." The sentiment of the 2006 statement was also reflected in the introduction to the first edition of the ''Britannica'', written by its original editor William Smellie:William Smellie in the Preface to the 1st edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica

Edition summary

See also

* Encyclopædia Britannica Films
* ''Great Books of the Western World''
* List of encyclopedias by branch of knowledge
* List of encyclopedias by date
*
* List of online encyclopedias

Notes

References

Further reading

* Boyles, Denis. (2016) ''Everything Explained That Is Explainable: On the Creation of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Celebrated Eleventh Edition, 1910–1911'' (2016
online review

*
* Greenstein, Shane, and Michelle Devereux (2006).
The Crisis at Encyclopædia Britannica
case history, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.
*
*
*
* Lee, Timothy. ''Techdirt Interviews Britannica President Jorge Cauz'', Techdirt.com, 2 June 2008

External links

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*
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''Encyclopaedia Britannica''
at the National Library of Scotland, first ten editions (and supplements) in PDF format.

''Encyclopaedia Britannica''
at the Online Books Page, hosted by the library of University of Pennsylvania, currently including the 1st–13th editions in multiple formats.

3rd edition, (1797, first volume, use search facility for others)
at Bavarian State Library

7th edition (1842) coloured scan
via HathiTrust

8th edition (1860, index volume, use search facility for others)
at Bavarian State Library

9th Edition (1878), published by Charles Scribner's Sons
on Internet Archive

9th and 10th (1902) editions
on 1902Encyclopedia.com

''The reader's guide to the Encyclopaedia Britannica'' (1913)
on Project Gutenberg A handbook containing sixty-six courses of systematic study or occasional reading.

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1768 non-fiction books
1768 establishments in Scotland
American encyclopedias
English-language encyclopedias
History of Edinburgh
Publications established in 1768
Scottish Enlightenment
Scottish encyclopedias
American online encyclopedias
British online encyclopedias