Encyclopaedia Britannica 2009 Ultimate Edition review

Instead of a shelf full of expensive volumes, you can get a comprehensive encyclopedia on your PC for the price of a single textbook.

But which one? The leaders are Micro soft's Encarta and the electronic version of the Encyclopedia Britannica, and the choice has always boiled down to a trade-off: Britannica's articles are better, but Encarta makes better use of the PC's multimedia capabilities. Without wishing to give away the ending of this review, that hasn't changed.

Britannica's interface has been improved. A home screen now provides access to the encyclopaedia's main modules, and a scrolling bar along the bottom of the screen that links to specific content. The way the program is organised - a system of tabbed windows inside an inverted 'l' shape - remains the same, but the interface is now cleaner and a little less cluttered, not before time.

The articles themselves are long, detailed and exhaustively referenced. There are a number of new features for 2009. A biography section tells the stories of world leaders from Alexander the Great to the present day. In reality, this just gathers content most of which was already there, and groups it thematically. The same is true of the Book of the Year feature, covering 1992 to 2007.

As well as its excellent atlas, Britannica comes with the Student Library, for older schoolchildren, and the Elementary Library, for six to tens. Some of the most interesting updates are to the Student Library. New interactive games and activities have been added to the Homework Helper, ranging from fairly dull exercise sheets to high quality interactive presentations on engaging subjects.

Overall, despite its makeover, Britannica isn't as slick as Encarta, nor is its multimedia content as well integrated. But the quality and depth of its articles is enough to earn it our recommendation.

Author: Karl Wright