www.eb.com was the original, subscription-based site. Our library took
out a subscription as recently as this May and I was rather appalled to
read that it was being offered free for all at www.britannica.com. I
conducted identical searches on the two and could find no differences,
other than the latter having more advertising (it is funded by American
advertisers) and more links to other websites. (It is also in my
experience rather slower to load - more people accessing it, obviously.
In fact in the first day online it crashed completely.)
This was confirmed by a call to Encyclopedia Britannica. By way of
encouragement for us to keep our subscription going, they said they were
working on differentiated content levels for primary/secondary school,
college and university libraries - but still basically a reworking of
the material available free. They also said they were authorised to make
a refund - after I suggested they had acted less than properly in
selling us something they were shortly to make available for free.
No doubt someone from Britannica will join this discussion and put a
different spin on matters. But I do wonder why anyone in their right
mind would pay for it now!
Marianne Bradnock
In message <[log in to unmask]
>, Kiley ,Mr Robert <[log in to unmask]> writes
>Did I miss something? I though I read that this was going to be
>free...forever. On visiting this site this morning however, I see it is
>subscription based. See: http://www.eb.com [$5 a month for personl
>subscribers.]
>
>If, however, you visit http://www.britannica.com/ it appears you can still
>get access to the encyclopedia, free of charge. And, according to the blub
>on this page 'Britannica.com includes the complete, updated Encyclopędia
>Britannica, the oldest and largest general reference in the English
>language.'
>
>So, why is the eb.com site asking for money and the other site not?
--
Marianne Bradnock
Head of Libraries
Dulwich College
London SE21 7LD
tel: 0181 299 9244
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