The Encyclopedia Americana

Encyclopedia Americana is a general encyclopedia[2] written in American English. It was the first major multivolume encyclopedia that was published in the United States.[2] With Collier's Encyclopedia and EncyclopÃdia Britannica, Encyclopedia Americana became one of the three major English-language general encyclopedias: The three were sometimes collectively called "the ABCs".[3] Following the acquisition of Grolier in 2000, the encyclopedia has been produced by Scholastic.

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The encyclopedia has more than 45,000 articles, most of them more than 500 words and many running to considerable length (the "United States" article is over 300,000 words). Americana is international in scope and is known for its detailed coverage of American and Canadian geography and history.[2] Americana is also known for its strong coverage of biographies, and scientific and technical subjects.[2] Written by 6,500 contributors, the Encyclopedia Americana includes over 9,000 bibliographies, 150,000 cross-references, 1,000+ tables, 1,200 maps, and almost 4,500 black-and-white line art and color images. It also has 680 factboxes. Major articles are signed by their contributors, many being scholars pre-eminent in their field.[2]

The online version of the Encyclopedia Americana, first introduced in 1996,[2] continues to be updated and sold. This work, like the print set from which it is derived, is designed for high school and first-year college students along with public library users. It is available to libraries as one of the options in the Grolier Online reference service, which also includes the Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, intended for middle and high school students, and The New Book of Knowledge, an encyclopedia for elementary and middle school students. Grolier Online is not available to individual subscribers.

In 1902, a new, 16 volume Encyclopedia Americana was published under the editorial supervision of Scientific American magazine. The magazine's editor, Frederick Converse Beach, was editor-in-chief, assisted by hundreds of eminent scholars and authorities as consulting editors and article authors. George Edwin Rines was appointed managing editor in 1903.[9] Between 1903 and 1906 the publisher was R.S. Peale & Co. From 1906 through 1936, Encyclopedia Americana was published by the Americana Corporation, with the editorial support of Scientific American. The relationship with Scientific American was terminated in 1911.[10] From 1907 to 1912, the encyclopedia was published as The Americana.

In 1988, Grolier was purchased by the French media company Hachette, which owned a well-known French-language encyclopedia, the Hachette Encyclopedia. Hachette was later absorbed by the French conglomerate the LagardÃre Group.

A CD-ROM version of the encyclopedia was published in 1995. Although the text and images were stored on separate disks, it was in keeping with standards current at the time. More importantly, the work had been digitized, allowing for release of an online version in 1997. Over the next few years the product was augmented with additional features, functions, supplementary references, Internet links, and current events journal. A redesigned interface and partly reengineered product, featuring enhanced search capabilities and a first-ever ADA-compliant, text-only version for users with disabilities, was presented in 2002.

The acquisition of Grolier by Scholastic for US$400 million, took place in 2000. The new owners projected a 30% increase in operating income, although historically Grolier had experienced earnings of 7% to 8% on income.[14] Following the acquisition, Americana became part of a suite of educational resources.[2] Staff reductions as a means of controlling costs also followed soon thereafter, even while an effort was made to augment the sales force. Cuts occurred every year between 2000 and 2007, leaving a much-depleted work force to carry out the duties of maintaining a large encyclopedia database.[15]

The Encyclopedia Americana is a US-based encyclopedia publishedin the 20th and 21st century. (It is also the name of some otherwiseunrelated 19th-century encyclopedias, also listed on The Online Books Page,some under the spelling Encylopaedia Americana.)Below we link to volumes of early 20th centuryeditions as provided by various online book sites. The last print edition of the Encyclopedia Americana was published in 2006.The digital edition appear to be no longer available as a distinct work,though some of its content might have been absorbed into Scholastic'sdigital products.1904 editionThe 1904 edition was edited by Frederich Converse Beach (editor of the Scientific American), with George Edward Rines as managing editor. It was publishedin 16 volumes by the Americana Company. All 16 volumes at HathiTrust1918-1920 editionThe 1918-1920 edition, also titled "The Americana", was edited byGeorge Edwin Rines and published in 30 volumes by the Encyclopedia AmericanaCorporation. Below are links to page images of the volumes, whichare also being transcribed in Wikisource. Volume I (A - Annuals): Google -- HathiTrust -- Internet Archive Volume II (Annuity - Azzubeydi): Google -- HathiTrust (includes some upside-down pages) -- Internet Archive Volume III (B - Bird's-Foot): Google -- HathiTrust -- Internet Archive Volume IV (Birds of Paradise - Bulfinch): Google -- HathiTrust Volume V (Bulgaria - CastaÃos): Google -- HathiTrust -- Internet Archive Volume VI (Caste - Civil Law): Google -- HathiTrust -- Internet Archive Volume VII (Civil List - Coronium): Google -- HathiTrust -- Internet Archive Volume VIII (Corot - Deseronto): Google -- HathiTrust -- Internet Archive Volume IX (Desert - Egret): Google -- HathiTrust -- Internet Archive Volume X (Egusquiza - Falsetto): Google -- HathiTrust -- Internet Archive Volume XI (Falstaff - Francken): Google -- HathiTrust Volume XII (Franco - Goethals): Google -- HathiTrust Volume XIII (Goethe - Haw): Google -- Internet Archive Volume XIV (Hawaii - Index): Google -- HathiTrust -- Internet Archive Volume XV (India - Jeffers): Google -- HathiTrust -- Internet Archive Volume XVI (Jefferson - Latin): Google -- HathiTrust -- Internet Archive Volume XVII (Latin America - Lytton): Google -- HathiTrust Volume XVIII (M - Mexico): Google -- HathiTrust -- Internet Archive Volume XIX (Meyer - Naval Mines): Google -- HathiTrust -- Internet Archive Volume XX (Naval Observatory - Orleans): HathiTrust Volume XXI (Orley - Photoengraving): Google -- HathiTrust -- Internet Archive Volume XXII (Photography - Pumpkin): Google -- HathiTrust -- Internet Archive Volume XXIII (Pumps - Russellville): Google -- HathiTrust -- Internet Archive Volume XXIV (Russia - Silius): Google Volume XXV (Silk - Sulphovinic Acid): Google -- HathiTrust -- Internet Archive Volume XXVI (Sulphur - Tramways): Google -- HathiTrust -- Internet Archive Volume XXVII (Trance - Venial): Google -- HathiTrust -- Internet Archive Volume XXVIII (Venice - Wasmann): Google -- HathiTrust -- Internet Archive Volume XXIX (Wasps - Zymotic): Google -- HathiTrust -- Internet Archive Volume XXX (Classified index): Google -- HathiTrust -- Internet Archive This is a "meta-book", which stitches together separate files elsewhere on the Web as they appeared in a previously published book. It is subject to removal if someone produces an integrated edition. If that happens, The Online Books Page will point to the integrated version.

As with any other reference work, most faculty instruct students not to cite Wikipedia. But some faculty go further, advising students not to consult Wikipedia as a background source. Prohibitions of this nature, fairly uncommon nowadays, typically result from the volunteer approach to editing taken by Wikipedia, which can be unreliable. In order to be safe, think of Wikipedia as the first stop on a research road trip. Move on from Wikipedia to edited, scholarly encyclopedias and other reference works.

An interesting compromise between traditional encyclopedias and Wikipedia is Citizendium, a project that continues to limp along but has unfortunately not gained much traction. Most of the academic work on Wikipedia has focused on making it more like a scholarly reference work through the interventions of undergraduate and graduate students, librarians, and disciplinary faculty.

This template facilitates the citation of articles from editions of Encyclopedia Americana that are in the public domain using cite encyclopedia. The template can also be used to cite articles from editions that are not in the public domain. In these cases, the noicon parameter should be used to suppress the icon.

At first, online search engines failed to turn up the philosophic rationale I was looking for. I had to turn to a pre-Internet information system, a Gutenberg database that, when I was growing up, occupied a place of prominence right next to the television set - the encyclopedia.

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