Electronic Encyclopedia

Synonyms

eEncyclopedia

Definition

An electronic encyclopedia, like its print counterpart, provides extensive information covering general knowledge or specific disciplines through a vast collection of small articles, typically arranged alphabetically or indexed by title. Initially, electronic encyclopedias were restricted to ASCII encodings of the text portions of entries in print encyclopedias. Advances in the representation and presentation of universal character sets, images, sound, video, and interactive graphics allow today’s electronic encyclopedias to present multimedia articles that are competitive with those found in conventional print encyclopedias.

Key Points

Electronic encyclopedias were initially computer-based delivery systems for their printed counterparts, accessed primarily via optical media or over computer networks. More recently, Wikipedia has demonstrated the effectiveness of collaborative co-authoring to create an electronic encyclopedia that has no print...