Encyclopedia Americana

For the 19th-century encyclopedia, see Encyclopædia Americana (Lieber).

Encyclopedia Americana
Encyclopedia Americana at Göttingen State and University Library
AuthorFrancis Lieber (1800–1872)
LanguageEnglish
SubjectGeneral
Published1829–present (online)
PublisherScholastic
Media type1

Encyclopedia Americana is a general encyclopedia[1] written in American English. It was the first general encyclopedia of any magnitude to be published in North America.[2]: 31  With Collier's Encyclopedia and Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopedia Americana became one of the three major and large English-language general encyclopedias; the three were sometimes collectively called "the ABCs of encyclopedias".[2]: 23  Following the acquisition of Grolier in 2000, the encyclopedia has been produced by Scholastic.

The encyclopedia has more than 45,000 articles, most of them more than 500 words and many running to considerable length (the "United States" article is over 300,000 words). Americana is international in scope and is known for its detailed coverage of American and Canadian geography and history.[1] Americana is also known for its strong coverage of biographies, as well as scientific and technical subjects.[1] Written by 6,500 contributors, the Encyclopedia Americana includes over 9,000 bibliographies, 150,000 cross-references, 1,000+ tables, 1,200 maps, and almost 4,500 black-and-white line art and color images. It also has 680 fact boxes. Major articles are signed by their contributors, many being scholars pre-eminent in their field.[1]

Long available as a 30-volume print set, the Encyclopedia Americana is now marketed as an online encyclopedia requiring a subscription. In March 2008, Scholastic said that print sales remained good but that the company was still deciding on the future of the print edition.[3] The company's final print edition was released in 2006.[1]

The online version of the Encyclopedia Americana, first introduced in 1996,[1] continues to be updated and sold. This work, like the print set from which it is derived, is designed for high school and first-year college students along with public library users. It is available to libraries as one of the databases in the Scholastic GO! reference service (previously known as Grolier Online), which also includes the Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, an encyclopedia for middle and high school students, The New Book of Knowledge, an encyclopedia for ages 7-14 and particularly grades 3-6, America the Beautiful, Lands and Peoples, Amazing Animals of the World, and The New Book of Popular Science.[4][2]: 31  According to The New York Public Library,[5] Scholastic GO! also includes the La Nueva Enciclopedia Cumbre, a Spanish-language general encyclopedia for students in middle through high school.[6] However, the previously mentioned Scholastic blog does not show that.[4] It is possible that La Nueva Enciclopedia Cumbre is only included in the Spanish version of Scholastic GO!, though the existense of that in itself is unsure due to the same New York Public Library link saying that the language of Scholastic GO! is English.[5] Scholastic GO! is not available to individual subscribers.

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Encyclopedia Americana | American reference work". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 25 June 2015. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
  2. ^ a b c Kister, K. F. (1994). Kister's Best Encyclopedias: A Comparative Guide to General and Specialized Encyclopedias (2nd ed.). Phoenix, Arizona: Oryx Press. ISBN 0-89774-744-5.
  3. ^ Noam Cohen (16 March 2008). "Start Writing the Eulogies for Print Encyclopedias". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 14 October 2018. Retrieved 26 June 2008.
  4. ^ a b Sullivan, Brittany (5 March 2018). "Introducing the re-engineered Scholastic GO! (+ a sweepstakes!)". Scholastic On Our Minds. Archived from the original on 8 March 2018. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
  5. ^ a b "Scholastic GO". New York Public Library. Archived from the original on 9 August 2022. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
  6. ^ "Nueva enciclopedia cumbre en linea". Booklist. 1 November 2003. Retrieved 10 December 2023.