Encyclopaedia Britannica Online - Search Tips
What is Encyclopaedia Britannica Online?
Encyclopaedia Britannica Online is an online encyclopædia, consisting of the complete encyclopædia, the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary and Thesaurus, the Britannica Student Encyclopædia and the Britannica Book of the Year. Together, these quality reference sources provide the user with over 118,000 articles, 14,000 images, 215,000 dictionary entries as well as 300,000 links to websites selected, rated, and reviewed by Britannica editors.
What is Encyclopaedia Britannica Online useful for?
Encyclopaedia Britannica Online is a great resource for students or the general public who are looking for information on any topic, for project work, essays or general information. You can read/email/print/cite the articles.
Encyclopaedia Britannica Online also offers additional content sources such as comparison of statistics amongst countries, browse quotations from famous authors and skim essays from great thinkers.
How and where can I access Encyclopaedia Britannica Online?
Currently, Encyclopaedia Britannica Online is only accessible at the multimedia stations (PCs which provide Internet access) in the libraries. A Digital Library account is needed to use the multimedia stations, you can register for a free account at the libraries or from home. After successfully acquiring an account, proceed to log-in at a multimedia station. Usage of the multimedia stations at the libraries is charged is 3 cents per minute (or $1.80 per hour), payment is done via cashcard. Please refer here on how to locate Encyclopaedia Britannica Online after logging in.
How do I use Encyclopaedia Britannica Online?
This is the home page:
Search:
Begin searching for information by typing in a word or phrase in the search box and click Go.
You may also try the Advanced Search for more complex queries.
The following are some tips for better search results:
1. Change the order of search results by using Advanced Search.
2. Use quotation marks around words or phrases if you want them to appear word for word in your
search results.
3. Identify matches to nicknames and alternate titles.
4. No effect on search results if you type your search words in uppercase or lowercase.
5. You can use either singular or plural words in encyclopedia searches, but only use
singular words to search the dictionary/thesaurus.
6. You can enter either American or British spelling of your search term, and find the same
results.
7. Use abbreviations or acronyms from this abbreviation list in your query.
8. Use punctuations (quotation marks, parentheses, hyphens, apostrophes) and special
characters in your query.
9. Use Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT) to expand or narrow your searches.
In addition, you can also search the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus by typing in a word in the search box and click Go.
Britannica Daily:
Britannica Highlights feature chosen articles by Britannica editors to encourage you to learn new things every day. Biography of the Day features information about notable people born on today’s date. This Day in History features key dates in world history. News from Around the World features the latest articles from The New York Times, BBC News, and SBS World News.
Research Tools:
The Index allows you to find all the references to a topic through the Encyclopaedia Britannica. A-Z Browse features articles displayed in alphabetical order. Subject Browse allows you to find related articles, organized by topic. World Atlas features maps and articles on nations, people, and places from around the world. Timelines feature selected topics through history with illustrations and key dates.
For in-depth guides to using Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, please visit the Encyclopaedia Britannica Help.
For more in-depth tips, please download the Encyclopaedia Britannica Guided Tour.
For more information on using Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, read on!