With its scholarly, reliable reputation, Encyclopedia Britannica had not been affected by the popularity of free website Wikipedia, he said. Internet News Updated. By Christine Kearney 3 Min Read. A 32 volume set of the Encyclopaedia Britannica is shown in this undated publicity photograph released to Reuters on March 13, The first volume appeared for purchase on December 10, By the seventh edition, which appeared in twenty-one volumes from to , the basic form of the Encyclopaedia had become fixed: a reference work covering everything from general interest to biography to technical knowledge to science to arts and history in indexed articles written by known experts.
True to its founding Enlightenment sensibilities, it sought to summarize all branches of knowledge and inform people about the known world. And some nine decades on from that? What are the ideals we want our encyclopedias — now, for most people, Wikipedia — to express?
Above all, Wikipedia is supremely democratic, as opposed to the elite, expert-based print encyclopedias of yore. Just as the Britannica always reflected the aspirations of its time — to know and understand the world through reason during the Enlightenment, to unify and improve the world in the wake of world war, to evoke middle class stability and prosperity in the s — Wikipedia embodies our own ideals.
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