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Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia |
| Title | Category | Format | Producer | Rating |
| Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia | Education | 
CD-ROM |
Microsoft |  |
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What makes Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia "the world's leading multimedia encyclopedia" is a combination of its sales figures and its intuitive interface to a world of knowledge. Taking the lead in incorporating multimedia into encyclopedias, Encarta offers less text than Britannica, but the average user won't mind. Encarta is current, its text is informative yet light, somewhat reminiscent of the style used by the two largest weekly news magazines. The 1997 edition boasts 6000 new or updated articles out of 30,000 on the whole. Information without structure is merely data, but given structure a student can become educated |
Structured learning activities are provided via several paths. The
most popular is the Media Gallery, which consists of exploring by
category. Categories consist of physical science and technology; life
science; geography; history; social science; religion and philosophy; art,
language and literature; performing arts; sports hobbies and pets. These
categories are then further broken out to facilitate finding something of
interest. Concerned that a technology company would slight the arts in its
rendition into an encyclopedia, this reviewer was pleasantly shocked to
hear an audio clip of the powerful and liberating close of James Joyce's
Ulysses.  Unfortunately, the accompanying article was only a mere 637
words, providing only the barest sketch of Joyce's life. By way of
compensation, Encarta promises 300,000 links to the Internet, of which one
is the "James Joyce Homepage." There we were able to find electronic
versions of Joyce's works, a more complete biography, and hear songs of
importance to the writer. Needless to say, Encarta's use of the web can
compensate nicely for deficiencies in the text. And for those who think
that the liberal arts focus too much on white European males, there are
270 articles relating to African history, though no classifications by
gender. | |
Encarta promises 300,000 links to the Internet |
Learning is also facilitated through a timeline that begins with human origins and concludes with the Middle East Peace Process. Not all events are represented on the timeline, but those represented with icons can be clicked to reveal a brief synopsis. Each synopsis then suggests further jumping off points. There is also an atlas, allowing its users to not only find any point on the globe, but also once there, explore facts about its climate, its population, and its history. Another method of exploration and one of our favorites were the "Interactivities." Interactivities are a lot like "labs" in high school. One such interactivity allows users to compare words and phrases in sixty world languages. Phrases, numbers, and greetings are spoken by native speakers and can be selected for comparison. Some sure to be favorites are where you get to create your own orbits, listen to world music, and create trees and bushes using fractals. |
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Having learned from Gillette, the great razor magnate, Microsoft has given us Encarta at a very reasonable price, but wants us to purchase subscriptions that update the contents of the encyclopedia. Although online web links are free, a number of other online features require payment before they can be accessed. The Encarta subscription program costs $29.95, which allows users to freshen the content by supplementing articles on the CD-ROM with new material from events that have happened since the CD-ROM was published. |
| Overall, we rated the Encarta to be suitable for high school students
and freshman in college. Beyond that, the articles omit too much
information, which is what real research requires. It does, however,
provide a place to start and possibly even some inspiration, but this is
still no substitute for the stacks found in any good library. Still,
Encarta allows its explorers to do many things books can't, such as learn
in a free form manner, letting one hyperlink lead to related articles.
This should appeal to today's web-centric generation. Another appeal might
be that it not only allows for the wholesale copying of articles, but also
offers a word processor to help. Older users will appreciate that Encarta
can change the font size of articles, making them larger for those of us
old enough to remember many of the events listed first hand. Ease of use earns a plus with menus that fly out at the mere wave of a mouse, but scores a minus when trying to backtrack since the backtrack buttons change locations depending on which window you happen to be in. We hope that navigation will eventually work more like Microsoft's browser, which gives a history list and keeps its back button in a consistent location. |
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