Lets face facts. In the world of printed encylopedias, Brittanica is king.The bad news for most families is that this king sized encyclopedia comes at a king-sized price and will occupy more space than your sofa to store it.
Software to the rescue, then. Im not necessarily a big fan of electronic books - Id much rather cover the dining room table in paper volumes than flick from window to window on my laptop. When it comes to reference works like this, though, software rules. The ability to perform a search and find all related articles multiplies the value of a reference work hundreds of times. And, of course, you can easily copy and paste if you want to quote something.
To my mind, you are buying three things when you buy this.
First, you are buying the information. Tonnes of it. Information which is checked and accurate. You could find most of this on the internet, but, then, you would also find loads of information which was inaccurate, and you would have to know a fair amount about the subject to know which was which.
Second, you are buying the searchability and portability. You cant search through the paper version, and you cant carry it around. Neither, of course, can you access the internet while sitting on a train.
Third, you are buying authority. Putting Encylopaedia Brittanica as the source of your quotation underlines its authority, in a way in which quoting Grolier or Encarta doesnt
All in all, I would recommend this to every computer user. We bought the original CD edition in (I think) 1997, and I had no compunction about buying this edition again in 2003. The price is _so_ low for what it is that I shall probably buy it again in 2010 when it has evolved a little further.
