by Ari Davis

ELECTRONIC ENCYCLOPEDIAS

Since the advent of computer technology, several encyclopedias have been made available in CD-ROM format, sometimes as part of a reference package; and as part of an on-line service. CD-ROM encyclopedias typically offer multimedia enhancements, such as video and sound clips and animated illustrations, and on-line encyclopedias especially are frequently updated. All electronic encyclopedias make use of hypertext cross-references.

Encyclopedias have changed so radically or rapidly over the years since the mainstream of the Internet. With the advent of the Internet many different types and more comprehensive encyclopedias have been put online. A medium in which several years ago libraries would have paid a lot of money for, are now available free of charge online and in a lot more cases are more comprehensive than their print based counterparts.