Short Circuiting Reference Books

By Robert T. Grieves

Students are beginning to tap into on-screen encyclopedias

Rarely have school librarians seen so many children so eager to get at the encyclopedia. At Lindbergh School in Palisades Park, N.J., about 600 pupils a week read it. At Princeton High School in Princeton, N.J., 30 children a day use it. At Palisades Park High School, 15 students line up each weekday by 8 a.m. to get their chance to scan it. The object of all this excitement is the Academic American, an electronic encyclopedia.

The Academic American Encyclopedia is carried by the Dow Jones News/Retrieval service and Bibliographic Retrieval Services, two information data base systems. Dow Jones News/Retrieval also carries business and financial news, while Bibliographic Retrieval Services supplies information on academic and scientific research. The two firms provide the electronic encyclopedia to some 90,000 subscribers, including 200 public and university libraries and eight schools in three states. Customers can hook up to the encyclopedia with a personal computer over a telephone line or via cable television. Average price for the service: 60-c- a minute during the day with a personal computer or as low as $22 a month by cable.

The electronic encyclopedia is exactly the same as the printed version of the Academic American, published by Grolier Inc., which consists of 21 volumes, 28,000 articles and 9 million words. By comparison, the older and more respected Encyclopaedia Britannica has 30 volumes and 43 million words, while the World Book has 22 volumes and roughly 10 million words. Computerization, though, makes it relatively easy to update the Academic American, and a new version comes out every six months. An updated edition of the Britannica is published only annually, and the World Book is also modified once a year.

The first priority for the new encyclopedia's developers was ease of use. Dow Jones News/Retrieval tested the encyclopedia on 25 sixth-graders before putting it on the market. Said Richard J. Levine, editorial director of Dow Jones' information services: "Our goal was to make it so easy to use that you wouldn't need an instruction booklet. No one has ever tried to make such a complex thing so simple."

Children report that using the electronic Academic American is both effortless and more fun than studying printed volumes. To look up the life of Winston Churchill, for example, a student first types in a few words to make contact with the computer and hook up to the encyclopedia service. He or she then begins an electronic search. If just the word Churchill is typed, a choice of eight items is given, from Churchill River in Newfoundland to Sir Winston. After selecting Sir Winston, the student is offered six sections of an article about different phases of Churchill's life, as well as a bibliography. The student can read the material simply by pressing the number key that corresponds to the selection wanted.

Each section is about 300 words long. The articles have cross references to other sections of the encyclopedia; a student reading about Churchill, for example, is steered to an article on the Battle of Britain. If the student's computer is connected to a printer, copies of any information shown on the screen can easily be made.

Academic American, which has been used by schools since last September, has earned high marks from students. Says Jennifer Lombardi, 11, a sixth-grader at Lindbergh, "It's better than going to a book because it's easier to type into a keyboard than to flip through pages." Notes Adrian Treves, 14, a ninth-grader at Princeton High: "It's especially good for ancient history and English reports." Sums up Herbert Highfield, director of Princeton High's library: "If popularity indicates success, then this new encyclopedia is very successful indeed."

Not everyone, however, is enthusiastic about the electronic Academic American. Librarian Rosalie Pagano at Palisades Park High is worried that "students are relying too much on it. I wish they would transfer their interest to books." Observes Kenneth Kister, editor of the Encyclopedia Buying Guide: "Academic American was created under extreme deadline pressure. It's good, but not as well written as World Book or as comprehensive as the Encyclopaedia Britannica."

Other leading encyclopedia publishers have adopted a cautious attitude toward electronic versions of their reference books. For the past two years, World Book has tested an electronic encyclopedia on CompuServe, another computerized information service, but stopped offering it last month. The company says that the electronic version was not equal to the printed one because it was not illustrated. Since 1981 Encyclopaedia Britannica has been experimenting with a computerized version on Mead Data Central's Nexis system. But Mead's service is aimed at businesses and lawyers rather than schools and families.

Despite the caution of other publishers, Grolier remains optimistic about computerized reference sources. Says Frank Farrell, president of the electronic-publishing division: "We intend to break the constrictions of the printed page and make reading more dynamic." The firm is already planning a videodisc encyclopedia that may use laser technology. This would allow a student with a divided terminal screen to hear a Beethoven symphony while reading an article about the composer.

--By Robert T. Grieves This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.