World Book Encyclopedia 2003
Ultra Deluxe Edition

By Dale Farris, Secretary Golden Triangle PC Club October 2002 General Overview With this newest electronic release of the honored World Book Encyclopedia, TOPICS Entertainment adds to their already super lineup of wonderful computer software that belongs in all families and public libraries across the U.S. In this 2003 Ultra Deluxe Edition, TOPICS Entertainment continues to improve the time tested, well known name in family encyclopedias:  World Book. When we consider the significant impact the World Book name has had on most all American Baby Boomers, the entry of the electronic version of the World Book into the world of computers definitely adds to this already solid notoriety. Of all the subjects World Book knows, what they really understand best are the information needs of students. When research must be done, nothing is more frustrating than searching through useless information. Rather than crowding this encyclopedia suite with thousands of unnecessary articles, World Book has instead cut through the clutter to provide more than 22,300 of the most concise, timely, and informative pieces any student could need. In addition, understanding the necessity to have current information, they also provide FREE online encyclopedia updates so you will always have the latest resources. Presented in an extremely user-friendly format, World Book 2003 Ultra Deluxe Edition provides very effective, interactive multimedia materials and tools to access a wealth of knowledge. As the world changes, World Book changes with it, while remaining true to its goal of providing students, parents, teachers, and librarians with the most useful, up-to-date information on just about everything. With over 80 years of experience and a global reputation for unsurpassed excellence, World Book is firmly established as the premier reference source. Now the world's favorite encyclopedia continues its legacy with this newest World Book 2003 Ultra Deluxe Edition. This newest edition contains a suite of six publications, including the encyclopedia, contained on seven CD ROM discs. Among the many books on the 7 content-crammed discs in the latest package include the following: The World Book Encyclopedia of People and Places The World Book Encyclopedia of Science The World Book Student Dictionary The Eyewitness World Atlas The Summer Olympics Sports Multimedia Encyclopedia 2003 World Book Encyclopedia These 5 books are in addition to the latest 2003 version of the World Book Encyclopedia that is contained on discs 1 and 2 in the 7-CD ROM disc package. This latest electronic version of the most famous family encyclopedia set in the world continues to impress with its focus on meeting the needs of students, parents, teachers, and librarians. The 2003 World Book Encyclopedia contains 22,300+ articles, 1,400+ maps, 117 videos, and 781 audio clips. For students in all levels, using the World Book is very easy and the material is super for working on homework, essays, term papers, or other school research projects. You just use the user friendly search engine packed into the encyclopedia, and enter the topic or word search options to locate your desired information. Sticky notes mark the information you want to find again, and it is easy to highlight the content you want to see. Just double-click any word to find its meaning. The many included maps are detailed and interactive, and reflect a high cartographic standard that will broaden your perspective of the world. Maps also present information such as climate, economy, population distribution, and historical development. World Book Encyclopedia of People and Places From climate to currency, main rivers to major religions, in this super addition to the suite, you can click your way around the globe. People and Places serves as a scroll and stroll gazetteer that will take you on virtual treks from Andorra to Zambia, to take in the sights and citizens of the world. Select a country from the alphabetical list, explore its vital statistics in the Fact Box, weave through a jaunty historical Time Line, and even zoom in on color photos, while saving articles in your newly created Binders for quick research retrieval. World Book of Science In this neat added book, students can find answers to their questions about Astronomy, Biology, Botany, Chemistry, Physics, and Zoology with just a few strokes of the keyboard. You type in a general query, or you can browse by subject of science, and expand your understanding by clicking on the resulting links, articles, and color animations from the Media Gallery. This addition will make scientific research easy and fun. World Book Student Dictionary This important component of the collection reveals the answer to definitions to thousands of words. The program contains a programmed lexicon of useful words and phrases, audio, video, and a host of wondrously diverting word origins and fun facts. Summer Olympic Sports Multimedia Encyclopedia This neat title provides information on the 298 events that comprise the Summer Olympics. Armchair Olympians can increase their knowledge and understanding of all the competitions in all disciplines in the Summer Olympics, including Equestrian, Nautical, Aquatic, Strength, and Combat sports. All the Summer Olympics Games are explained and enhanced with commentary by professional athletes, and a record-shattering array of over 1,100 illustrations and animations are also included. Eyewitness World Atlas In this super electronic world atlas, style and substance all come together. This atlas provides a dazzling way to explore our planet. You can view the world as never before, from the grand planetary picture to the tiniest nation, using the latest in interactive mapping and stunning 3-D video features. Zoom in or out, search the huge global database, contrast and compare data from any 2 countries, all in your own birds-eye viewpoint of the world right at your desk. World Book Exclusive In this latest edition of the electronic World Book, students can now travel back through 80 years of World Book articles. With Internet access, you can read about events as they were described at the time. For example, you can study articles on World War II that were written in 1945. Another World Book Exclusive You also can now "Surf The Ages." With online access, you can surf World Book's exclusive "Surf The Ages" feature, that provides simulated Web sites as these might have been if the Web had existed throughout history. From an exclusive interview with a survivor of the Mount Vesuvius eruption in A.D. 79 to a plague information site in the 1300s, "Surf The Ages" takes you back in time to rediscover important historical events, people, and ideas. Based on historical facts and documentation, each of these unique Web entries journeys through the main events of Ancient Times, the Middle Ages, and Modern Times. With the "View From Today" option, you can also reveal what we now know or believe about the featured event or figure. In order to use the "Surf the Ages" feature, active Internet access is not required. However, the feature does contain links to actual Web sites that do require active Internet access. Other Super Features Online Encyclopedia Updates - Link to World Book Reviewed Sites 9,600+ Illustrations and 42 Animations 1,850+ Tables 323 Timelines 13,900+ Online Articles from World Book Annuals 30,00-+ Measurements - Metric & Nonmetric 14 Scientific and Mathematical Simulations 5 Homework Wizards These discs add up to a one-stop resource suite designed for anyone researching, for example, the history of an emerging nation, hunting for a full-color photo of objects in outer space, hoping to understand the intricacies of gold-medal dressage, or browsing through lists that reveal the wondrous derivations of common words. Regarded as the #1 most-trusted name in reliability and accuracy, World Book continues to provide comprehensive, factual detail in an easy-to-access format. With more than 85 years of specialized experience in the fields of education and communication, World Book employs the expertise of over 3,700 scholars, authenticators, and reviewers in the service of this multi-award-winning family reference source. The migration of encyclopedias from print to CD ROM, and now even DVD ROM format is a natural technological advance, driven by the massive storage capacity of optical storage and the ease by which we can search for information in the electronic editions of the multi-volume encyclopedia sets. While one CD ROM disk can hold up to approximately 650 MB of data, depending on how the particular disk is made, the data capacity on DVD ROM disks now ranges from approximately 5 GB to approximately 9 GB. This result is driven by whether the disk can handle more than one layer of data on a side, and whether both sides may be used.  This transformation of encyclopedia reference material is an excellent example of the powerful potential inherent in the integration of computers with learning, and how this type of substantive information can be made to excite, intrigue, and challenge. With these many years of success with electronic encyclopedias on CD ROM, now most reference publishers are seriously moving to this CD ROM medium, and soon DVD ROM as the primary means of transmitting their material to their customers. All public libraries would be wise to add this 2003 edition of the World Book to their growing collection of reference material for students, and their growing electronic based reference material. System Requirements Pentium 166MHz or faster processor (233MHz recommended) Windows 95 and later 32MB RAM 300MB free hard disk space 800 X 600 resolution monitor 16-Bit high-color 12X CD-ROM drive 16-Bit Sound Blaster, or compatible sound card Internet Explorer 4 or higher (to use Surf the Ages) Mouse Printer (optional) Internet Access (optional) Note:  Windows XP requires 300MHz or higher Pentium-based or compatible PC and 128MB RAM. Windows 2000 requires 64MB RAM. NOTE: These system requirements are relatively hefty, and as is always the case, the faster the processor and the CD ROM drive, and the more RAM, the better this and any other application will perform. In addition, be sure you have the above mentioned minimum hard drive space available for this program. I also would not recommend attempting to run this program on anything but the minimal processor mentioned. When running these dynamic, complex multimedia files, this really challenges a PC, and users with "older" machines should seriously consider these requirements that are clearly spelled out on the box. This is an example of reference software that will look for today's newer hardware. Price $49.99 Bottom Line This multimedia encyclopedia is very competitively priced and targeted for home users, and of the many multimedia encyclopedias now on the market, this one certainly is among the best. For libraries, including this CD ROM edition of the World Book is absolutely essential. However, I also suggest librarians strongly consider including this among a collection of other electronic, as well as print encyclopedias, as it would be a mistake to assume only this application would meet their need to provide electronic encyclopedia information to their customers. As is always the case with any encyclopedia, one could just as easily take the publishers to task for all the other information they did not include. However, librarians get around this reality by making sure to have on hand more than one general encyclopedia, more than one electronic based encyclopedia, as well as a ton of other specialized reference works. The truth is that no encyclopedia can ever be considered the storage house of all knowledge, not even the stodgy old mainstay in the encyclopedia genre, the Encyclopedia Britannica. So, as librarians face ever tightening budgets, and the never ending revisions to their encyclopedia sets, one set however does stand out as essential, as number 1 on their list of must-haves, and that 1 item is the World Book. After you have incorporated the World Book Encyclopedia 2003 Ultra Deluxe Edition in your collection, then proceed to consider adding other electronic and paper based encyclopedias, budgets permitting. With any reference material, one has to remember what is provided in the hard copy book, or CD ROM program, is really more a matter of editorial decisions based on limited space, rather than an attempt to provide a comprehensive collection of knowledge. Go to any sophisticated public or university library, find a couple different sets of encyclopedias (hard copy or CD ROM version), and look up a dozen topics of interest in each set. You might be surprised how different are the results of these searches. About TOPICS Entertainment TOPICS Entertainment, with corporate offices located in Renton, Washington, is a premier publisher of educational software and spoken word audio products. Founded in 1990 as a distributor of niche and specialty video, TOPICS, then called CounterTop Video, quickly became one of the most sought-after suppliers of special-interest video in the United States, with products on the shelves of more than 5,000 independent retailers. In 1994, TOPICS founder and president, Greg James, an accomplished producer of video documentaries, led the company into the burgeoning field of video publishing. TOPICS inaugural release, "America By Rail," has since become one of the biggest special-interest video success stories, with sales in the hundreds of thousands. By 1996, with a growing catalogue of video titles released and sales records shattered, TOPICS seized the opportunity to expand into the growing personal computer market by venturing into consumer CD-ROM publishing. Getting its feet wet with "Super Games Galore," a software collection of over 300 games for the PC, TOPICS realized an overwhelming public response, cementing the company's commitment to quality content and approachable pricing. Since then, TOPICS has become a leading publisher of language and reference software. NPD Intellect now ranks TOPICS as the 10th largest consumer software company overall. With almost 200 titles in its portfolio, TOPICS Entertainment has sold over five million units! In 2000, TOPICS continued to preach its own gospel of quality, content, and value with "James Earl Jones Reads The Bible," one of the company's first forays into the realm of spoken-word and audio-books. To date, with some 50 releases encompassing everything from "The Call of the Wild" to "Arthur Conan Doyle," "Fibber McGee" to "Frankenstein," the company's repertoire of spoken-word audio on CD and cassette continues to demonstrate an exceptional 3-to-1 value-to-price ratio. It's one of the fastest-growing product segments for TOPICS, and the company is dedicated to nurturing this line. It's no coincidence that the name of the company is homophonous to Top Picks. The TOPICS team diligently scours the globe in search of unusual, adventurous, and unique content that adheres to exacting standards of educational and recreational merit. TOPICS is pleased to have formed publishing partnerships with some of the world's pre-eminent authorities, including Rand McNally, The Audubon Society, World Book Encyclopedia, the Discovery Channel, Simon & Schuster, and Vivendi Universal. The company is equally thrilled to discover emerging content in remote corners of the world, in the hopes of introducing the consumer to another TOPICS breakthrough. TOPICS Entertainment has doubled sales volume every year. The company is privately owned, financed solely by its own profits, and entirely debt-free. Market tracking, business surveys, and national sales data all rate TOPICS Entertainment as the #1 fastest-growing major consumer software publisher in America. In a field that encourages thinking outside the box, customers and retailers alike can have confidence in what TOPICS puts inside theirs. Contact Information Lindsay Collins Director of Media & Public Relations TOPICS Entertainment 1600 S.W. 43rd St. Renton, WA 98055 425-656-3621 lindsay@topics-ent.com topics-ent.com