Redesigned Britannica Site Serves Enjoyment With Enlightenment

    CHICAGO, Dec. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Visitors to Encyclopaedia Britannica's Web
 site will find knowledge presented in new and engaging ways following a
 top-to-bottom reorganization of the site that showcases its vast reserves of
 information and multimedia.
     In addition to the Encyclopaedia Britannica and other searchable reference
 works, the new Britannica Online ( http://www.britannica.com ) boasts an
 eclectic mix of special features covering a wide variety of subjects, such as
 globalization, violent weather, great art, mountain climbing, camel racing,
 historical events and notable people.  Visitors are also invited to test their
 knowledge with a question of the day and a photo identification quiz.
     The full contents of the new features are available to subscribers and
 non-subscribers alike.  They're meant in part to show casual browsers what a
 wealth of enjoyable learning awaits those with access to the entire site.
     "We're covering subjects today that didn't exist a few years ago, and
 we're treating traditional subjects in new ways," said Theodore Pappas,
 Britannica's executive editor.  "For example, our new presentation of boxing
 shows manifestations of the sport in art, from 'The Iliad' to Clint Eastwood's
 'Million Dollar Baby.'  We're proud of this work, and we're making it as easy
 as possible for people to find it."
     Indeed, the publisher is waving it right in their faces.  At the center of
 the site's dynamic new home page is a space with four special feature
 presentations that rotate every fifteen seconds.  Each brings together several
 interrelated articles, multimedia, and additional text aimed at providing an
 engaging glimpse into a topic of general interest.   Recent features have
 included ecoterrorism, nanotechnology, slave narratives, World Heritage sites,
 dinosaurs and a look at the Crusades in light of today's uneasy relations
 between Islam and the West.  In coverage of Pearl Harbor, historian Robert
 Dallek explores questions about whether President Franklin Roosevelt
 manipulated events to steer the U.S. into World War II.
     The presentations are replaced by four new ones each week, and the old
 ones are archived so users can return to them.
     The new home page also sports daily biographies, a quotation of the day,
 and classic articles from previous editions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica by
 notable authors such as Sigmund Freud, Marie Curie, and George Bernard Shaw.
 And the contributions of today's scholars, such as James McPherson, a Pulitzer
 Prize-winning historian and member of Britannica's editorial board, are
 highlighted as well in a new "contributor news" feature.
     The new homepage also includes a "student center" with research tools and
 shortcuts to useful sources for school projects.
     People who make the site a regular destination will be rewarded with a
 continually changing smorgasbord of enlightening and entertaining features,
 said Pappas.
     "We've got something for everyone, no matter what your interests," he
 said.  "They say you learn something new every day.  At our site, you really
 do."
 
 
     About Encyclopaedia Britannica
     Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. has been a leader in reference and
 education publishing since 1768.  The company is known for the 32-volume
 Encyclopaedia Britannica and its pioneering work in electronic publishing.
 Its products include Britannica Online School Edition and other digital
 products; and printed products such as the new Britannica Discovery Library.
 Long recognized for its superior authority, Britannica's editorial operation
 is overseen by some of the world's most distinguished scholars, several of
 them Nobel laureates.  Britannica makes its headquarters in Chicago.
 
 

SOURCE  Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.