Content area
Full Text
The World Book Encyclopedia. Chicago: World Book, Inc, 2000. 22 vols. $799/set (ISBN 0-7166-0100-1/set). www.worldbook.com.
Since its debut in 1917 as a modest, eight-volume set intended to be the first significant encyclopedia specifically designed for children, The World Book has achieved an almost legendary status among parents, teachers, librarians, and the general public for accuracy, extensive revision, ease-of-use, readability, and abundant illustrations. Though still primarily geared to meet the reference needs of students in elementary school, junior high school, and high school, The World Book also serves as what the editors call "a general family reference tool" (preface) and has long been a favorite among librarians in all library settings.
The flashy title, "World Book Millennium 2000," which appears on the cover of each volume, suggests the extent to which the present set is intended to be a major event in the work's distinguished publication history. When correctly shelved in numerical order, the lined-up spines display a full-color composite photograph of a spectacular sunrise, with dappled sky in shades of blue and yellow, over which the title "WORLD BOOK" is emblazoned in huge letters (the 'W" is formed by the first three volumes, and so on.) Inside the covers, the quality of text and illustrations more than live up to the promise of the packaging. Since the previous (1999) edition, 112 entirely new articles have been added (Kosovo, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak), approximately fifteen-hundred articles have been extensively updated or completely revised (Human Genome Project, Endangered Species), and more than thirty-nine hundred pages have incorporated revisions of updating and correction. The World Book prides itself on revising over 20 percent of its pages every year, which it claims is four times the revision rate...