Monday, May 5, 2008

Britannica Webshare

Clicking on the links in the previous post will take you to the Encyclopaedia Britannica articles rather than the free Wikipedia entries. As a "Web Publisher" I applied for, and received, complimentary access to the venerable Britannica. The full text of all Encyclopaedia Britannica articles I link to on this blog is free for my readers.

Initial impressions:
  • I like being able to point to and use a more consistently scholarly resource. (Strictly speaking neither the -paedia nor the -pedia should be regarded as authorities in their own right. Articles will be more or less authoritative depending on the quality of their contributor(s). Both are good resources that should be read critically.)
  • I don't like the commercialism of Britannica.
  • Wikipedia is easier to use since once doesn't need to login or wait for a slow website to load.
  • The Wikipedia entry on Middlemarch is also much more extensive than anything Encyclopaedia Britannica has to offer.

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