World Book

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Current revision

World Book Encyclopedia is, according to its publisher in the United States, "the number-one selling print encyclopedia in the world" ^[1]. The first edition (1917) contained 8 volumes. New editions have since appeared every year except 1920, 1924, and 1932, with major revisions in 1929 (13 volumes), 1947 (18,000 illustrations), 1960 (20 volumes), and 1988. An international version, aimed at Britain and its former colonies was also produced in the early 1990s. A CD-ROM version of the encyclopedia for Macintosh and Windows computers first appeared in 1990. Since 1998, in addition to the print and CD-ROM editions of the 22-volume, 13,800-page encyclopedia, World Book also publishes an online version called the World Book Online Reference Center.^[2] The online version includes all of the articles contained in the print set as well as several thousand additional articles and the contents of every yearbook World Book has published since 1922.

Over the years, the World Book has been characterized by its populist design. Unlike other encyclopedias, it has traditionally published in nonuniform volumes sized to match the letters of the alphabet. A letter with many entries might be split across two volumes, and adjacent letters with few entries may share a volume, but for the most part each volume covers a single letter. It also gives itself the flexibility to lay out major articles distinctively, often starting them on a page of their own, perhaps with a two-column heading. Though not called a "children's" encyclopedia, it is marketed as a family encyclopedia for readers above 15 years of age.^[3] It recognizes the fact that one of the primary uses of general-purpose encyclopedias is for children working on school reports. For instance, every article for a U.S. state has a box giving such information as the official state bird, and in the 1960s and 1970s many science articles had instructions on ideas for science projects. Also, many articles offer suggestions for additional reading.

World Book is widely respected for being reliable and up to date. Every fact included must be corroborated by at least three respected sources--not including other encyclopedias.^[4] It is also the most up-to-date encyclopedia sold, with 20% of its pages being revised each year.^[5]

Other World Book products include The World Book Dictionary (1st edition in 1963), an encyclopedia for younger students called The World Book Student Discovery Encyclopedia (since 1999), Childcraft and World Book's Animals of the World.

World Book, Inc., is a subsidiary of the Scott Fetzer Company, which is in turn a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary.

Computer Edition

World Book Encyclopedia is also published in electronic form for Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh. Apple bundles a copy of World Book Encyclopedia with every consumer-level computer sold. This edition of the encyclopedia also includes the ability to automatically be updated online, a world atlas and several tools for students.

External links

• World Book Encyclopedia website
• World Book Online: [6]