Draft:Outline of encyclopedias

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to encyclopedias:

An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopaedia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles or entries that are arranged alphabetically by article name or by thematic categories, or else are hyperlinked and searchable. Encyclopedia entries are longer and more detailed than those in most dictionaries. Generally speaking, encyclopedia articles focus on factual information concerning the subject named in the article's title; this is unlike dictionary entries, which focus on linguistic information about words, such as their etymology, meaning, pronunciation, use, and grammatical forms.

What type of thing is an encyclopedia?

An encyclopedia can be described as all of the following:

• Compendium – concise, yet comprehensive compilation of a body of knowledge. A general encyclopedia can be referred to as a compendium of all human knowledge.
• Publication –
• Reference work –

Types of encyclopedias

Types of encyclopedias, by scope

• General encyclopedia – encyclopedia that is universal in scope, covering the whole of knowledge. Examples include Wikipedia, the Encyclopædia Britannica, and the World Book Encyclopedia.
• Specialized encyclopedia – an encyclopedia restricted to a specific area of knowledge, field, or academic discipline. An example is the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Types of encyclopedias, by media employed

Encyclopedias are distributed in the form of:

• Print encyclopedia – encyclopedia in book form, usually in multiple volumes. An example is the World Book Encyclopedia.
• Digital encyclopedia –
  • Online encyclopedia –
    • List of online encyclopediass
  • Knowledge bases –

Specific encyclopedias

• Bibliography of encyclopedias
  • Bibliography of encyclopedias: architecture and architects
  • Bibliography of encyclopedias: art and artists
  • Bibliography of encyclopedias: astronomy and astronomers
  • Bibliography of encyclopedias: aviation
  • Bibliography of encyclopedias: biology
  • Bibliography of encyclopedias: business, information and economics
  • Bibliography of encyclopedias: cuisine
  • Bibliography of encyclopedias: film, radio, television and mass communications
  • Bibliography of encyclopedias: general biographies
  • Bibliography of encyclopedias: geography
  • Bibliography of encyclopedias: history
  • Bibliography of encyclopedias: literature
  • Bibliography of encyclopedias: religion
• List of encyclopedias by branch of knowledge
• List of encyclopedias by language
• List of historical encyclopedias
• List of online encyclopedias

History of encyclopedias

History of encyclopedias

• List of encyclopedias by date (through 1900)
• History of specific encyclopedias
  • History of the Encyclopedia Americana
  • History of the Encyclopædia Britannica
  • History of Wikipedia

Former encyclopedias

• List of encyclopedias by date (through 1900)

Former online encyclopedias

• Crnogorska Enciklopedija
• Encarta
  • Encarta at the Wayback Machine (archived October 31, 2009)
• GNE
• Interpedia
• Enciklopedio Kalblanda
• Nupedia – free content predecessor of Wikipedia, online from 2000 to 2003. Following a peer-review model, it only produced 25 approved articles. That has since been assimilated into Wikipedia.
• Probert Encyclopaedia
• Susning.nu
• Veropedia

Former printed encyclopedias

• Collier's Encyclopedia
• Columbia Encyclopedia
• Funk & Wagnalls

History of relevant technologies

• History of books
• History of electronic media
  • History of the Internet
  • History of wikis

Persons influential in encyclopedias

Encyclopedist – person who writes, edits, or compiles an encyclopedia. Some influential encyclopedists include:

• Marcus Terentius Varro (116 BC – 27 BC) –
• Pliny the Elder (23 AD – August 25, 79 AD) –
• Martianus Capella (4th and 5th centuries AD) – Latin prose writer of Late Antiquity, from Apuleius—in the Roman province of Africa. He authored the encyclopedic work De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii. The work was read, taught, and commented upon throughout the early Middle Ages and shaped European education during the early medieval period and the Carolingian renaissance.
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• Mortimer J. Adler (December 28, 1902 – June 28, 2001) – director of editorial planning for the 15th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, and designer of the Outline of Knowledge presented in its Propædia volume.
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• Larry Sanger (July 16, 1968 – ) – co-founder of Wikipedia, and the founder of Citizendium.
• Jimmy Wales (August 7, 1966 – )– co-founder of and spokesman for Wikipedia.

See also

• Outline of Wikipedia

External links

• Encyclopaedia and Hypertext
• Internet Accuracy Project – Biographical errors in encyclopedias and almanacs
• Encyclopedia – Diderot's article on the Encyclopedia from the original Encyclopédie.
• De expetendis et fugiendis rebus – First Renaissance encyclopedia
• Errors and inconsistencies in several printed reference books and encyclopedias Archived July 18, 2001, at the Wayback Machine
• Digital encyclopedias put the world at your fingertips – CNET article
• Encyclopedias online University of Wisconsin – Stout listing by category
• Chambers' Cyclopaedia, 1728, with the 1753 supplement
• Encyclopædia Americana, 1851, Francis Lieber ed. (Boston: Mussey & Co.) at the University of Michigan Making of America site
• Encyclopædia Britannica, articles and illustrations from 9th ed., 1875–89, and 10th ed., 1902–03.