It takes a lot to impress the Internet generation. With the Web, students and trivia buffs have a seemingly limitless amount of information at their fingertips. In this environment, does anyone still want or need an encyclopedia? Microsoft's Encarta Reference Library 2002 attempts to provide an answer. This package includes Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 2002, Encarta Dictionary and Thesaurus, Encarta Interactive World Atlas, Encarta Africana, and Encarta Online Deluxe. Plus, Encarta makes it easy to access relevant information on the Internet, provided by original Microsoft content and by select links to outside sources. This five-disc CD-ROM set is a useful, albeit somewhat general, tool for students. It takes a lot to impress the Internet generation. With the Web, students and trivia buffs have a seemingly limitless amount of information at their fingertips. In this environment, does anyone still want or need an encyclopedia? Microsoft's Encarta Reference Library 2002 attempts to provide an answer. This package includes Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 2002, Encarta Dictionary and Thesaurus, Encarta Interactive World Atlas, Encarta Africana, and Encarta Online Deluxe. Plus, Encarta makes it easy to access relevant information on the Internet, provided by original Microsoft content and by select links to outside sources. This five-disc CD-ROM set is a useful, albeit somewhat general, tool for students.
Trouble-free setup
To install Encarta, simply follow the directions. It's nearly impossible to get lost. Microsoft gives you two installation options: standard, in which you install only the application and must swap CDs while using the product, or the new "Copy to hard disk" option, where you put the Encyclopedia's entire contents (more than 2.2GB of data) onto your hard disk. We tried it both ways and found that although the new install feature is supposed to save time, our 128MB, 1GHz Pentium 4 took just as long to access the data that way as when we swapped CDs.
After installation and restart, the program displays an Encarta Today screen that presents a list of out-of-date articles, offers available updates, and provides access to the program's update feature and online content. Younger children might need some practice navigating the menu bars, which often bury some features, and Encarta packs little in the way of tutorials. For the rest of you, however, the interface is easy to work with, understated, and recognizable to Windows and Encarta users alike.
Full o' facts
As in editions past, Encarta comes jammed with countless articles, interactive timelines and maps, archives of primary source material, speeches and commentaries, images, video, and sounds. If you need more info than an Encarta article provides, supplement your research by clicking one of the relevant Web links, which escort you to original Microsoft content or selected URLs. Microsoft's editors screen each link to make sure they contain relevant content--which they do. However, we think much information on many of the related links is rudimentary. For example, an Encarta page about museums contains links to an art museum--nothing revolutionary there and probably something you could find on your own.
Back to basics
Encarta contains all the standard reference fare to help students get a head start on a school project or nail down the basics of a timeline or event before plunging into deeper material. The Reference Library includes the standard collection, with a dictionary and a thesaurus, so students can decipher difficult words in articles or quickly translate words and simple phrases to Spanish and French. You'll also find the Interactive World Atlas, which boasts 22 map types and 1.8 million place names--it's handy if you need to explain, for example, the current conflict in Afghanistan. However, frustratingly, some maps contain more detail than others (for instance, the topography maps let you drill down to the country level, but religious breakdown maps usually go down to only the continental or regional level).
If you're interested in African or African-American history, Encarta Africana provides details about African culture and history that you won't find in other parts of the encyclopedia. In particular, the Encarta Africana provides stunning multimedia experiences, such as a collection of slave narratives and a music timeline. On the whole, every Encarta reference tool offers fun multimedia enhancements, such as photos and sounds, to complement article content. What's more, Encarta ships in a DVD version, which contains even more multimedia, video, audio, and Virtual Flights: flyover tours of various locations.
In spite of the abundance of features and information, Encarta still performs about as well as its competition, Grolier and Encyclopedia Britannica; each tool provides roughly the same type and number of articles. But Encarta earns its slightly higher price tag ($60, vs. $50 for the 2001 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia) with seamless Web integration, extra content such as the Africana module, and the fact that is it nearly standard issue in American schools. (Institutions can purchase multiple user licenses and are eligible for volume pricing, lesson plans, and other educational programs.)
Newer but not necessarily improved
Encarta has several new features, many of which require Internet access. For example, once you register for the Encarta software (until October 2002), you also get a year of Encarta Online Deluxe, which lets you update articles and links you to content that's available only on the Web. You must sign up at Encarta's Web site and log on using Microsoft's Passport authentication system. It's easy to download the updates, but some of them are out-of-date or incomplete. For example, articles about New York City and the World Trade Center, which were updated as recently as November 20, mention only that the skyscrapers were destroyed but give no information on the investigation or the rescue and recovery effort.
Other new features include Encarta FactFinder, which lets you look up quick translations, definitions, stock quotes, and profiles by moving your cursor over selected words in encyclopedia articles. Live streaming media gives you access to news, weather, and radio broadcasts from Microsoft partners. And 3-D Virtual Tours escort you around famous landmarks, but we found them more entertaining than informational. Encarta Researcher, which is not new but is improved, lets you clip articles and create bibliographies. Parents and teachers need not worry about kids using Researcher to write complete reports--the tool lets you organize and collect Microsoft articles and linked pages into one stored file.
Sterling support
If you have trouble with Encarta, you can contact Microsoft at its long distance number Monday through Friday during normal business hours, Saturday from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. PT. Have your customer ID ready--technicians pick up in no time flat.
Even though Microsoft Encarta Reference Library 2002 is the best digital reference software in the biz, it's also the encyclopedia your high school librarian warned you about. Encarta offers a wealth of general information on every subject and much of the basic data you need to start a report or help with your homework. But you won't find detailed analysis or an easy way to complete serious research projects. For that, stick with your local library.
Play video
