Why do we need encyclopedias? The answer to this question is more than obvious. We need encyclopedias to share knowledge about our complicated and complex world. The encyclopedia is one of the oldest, but most effective forms of knowledge sharing. This was discovered already several centuries ago. During the 13th century, the first book printing machines allowed encyclopedia to be spread all over the world. Nowadays, an encyclopedia does not necessarily have to be book anymore.
There are encyclopedias on CD/DVD, and also on the Internet. The main advantage of electronic encyclopedias is that, contrary to books, they don't have to reproduce their knowledge in alphabetic form anymore. This allows links between entries and very efficient modes of organizing and finding knowledge. In addition, the reproduction and distribution of knowledge CDs, DVDs, and content on the internet is very cost effective. Another advantage of electronic media is that they allow embedding pictures, videos and sounds into the encyclopedia. The disadvantage of these electronic publications is that one needs a computer to view them.
One notable electronic encyclopedia is Wikipedia, which is available online and for free on www.wikipedia.org. It is exceptional in the sense that contrary to traditional encyclopedia, it is not written by a team of editors, but by its users. That is also its main disadvantage, as the accuracy of the articles is reduced significantly by the fact that everyone can edit every article. A second advantage of Wikipedia is that it exits in over 250 languages. However, who is able to read that many languages?
To conclude: Wikipedia is a very nice source of information if one knows already enough to distinguish correct from incorrect information. Thus, for knowledge acquisition it should always be consulted together with a traditional encyclopedia.
Source: http://www.ArticlePros.com/author.php?Manuel Müllers
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