From paper and ink to CD-ROM: digitizing the 'World Book' image - 'The World Book Encyclopedia' - Children and the Digital Library

Library Trends, Spring, 1997 by Robert J. Janus

Abstract

This article describes the process by which the print version of The World Book Encyclopedia was initially converted to electronic form and then enhanced over several subsequent editions. The process involves much more than just the digitization of text and graphic elements and the ultimate addition of nonprint resources. Creating an electronic version of the encyclopedia meant capturing the conversion process. It describes how the designers applied a combination of World Book tradition and technology to resolve such issues.

Introduction

The World Book Encyclopedia is a general reference set whose objective is to present selected information from the vast reservoir of knowledge in the most accessible and usable form. The editors design World Book articles especially to meet the reference and study needs of students in elementary school, junior high school, and high school. World Book also serves as a general family reference tool. Librarians, teachers, and the general public likewise turn to World Book to satisfy their everyday reference needs.

By the time digital technology began to change the very nature of the publishing industry, The World Book Encyclopedia had appeared in more than seventy editions. First published in eight volumes in 1917, World Book bore the subtitle "Organized Knowledge in Story and Picture." At a time when supplementary learning materials were either hard to come by or largely arcane, World Book introduced a new concept: reference learning that emphasized interesting content, simple language, and many informative pictures.

The technology benchmark for the era in which World Book was born is evident in the list of the encyclopedia's entries. For example, there appeared in Volume 1 the entry, "Aeroplane. See Flying Machine." The "Flying Machine" article, in turn, conveyed another benchmark -- a benchmark on the attitude toward technology. In an introductory section on "Faith and Unbelief" it reported:

It is a matter of record that when Wilbur and Orville Wright, the

brothers who in 1903 made the first successful flier, announced to

their family their intention to build a heavy machine which would

fly in the air, their father took immediate steps to discourage so

foolish an idea. He wrote to a professor in a great university, outlining

the "crazy proposition" and asking him whether he believed it could

be done. This professor in his reply declared a man-made flier to be

a physical impossibility, and Mr. Wright handed the letter to his sons

with the remark, "I told you so."

The World Book Encyclopedia gradually grew from its original eight volumes in 1917 to twenty volumes in 1960. It reached its present count of twenty-two volumes in 1971 when the publisher added an index compiled with the aid of a computer-based information retrieval system.

During that long period of development, the editors had begun a system of continuous revision in which they updated articles throughout the set on an annual basis. As early as 1936, the editorial and research staffs had begun to compile and analyze contents of courses of study and to base content and readability decisions on such analyses. In 1955, World Book initiated its "classroom research" program. In this program, students in several hundred classrooms in the United States and Canada report on how they use the encyclopedia: what they look up, where they look for it, and whether they find what they look for. Every year, World Book researchers receive over 100,000 such bits of information and compile reports that show how many times each article in the encyclopedia is looked up at every grade level from elementary school through senior high. Editors use the classroom research data along with the courses of study data to keep tabs on what young people need to know and want to know. Grade-level data gathered in these research projects help the editors tailor vocabulary in a given article to the grades at which that article is most needed and most used.

As World Book grew and developed, it continued to employ emerging print and illustration technologies to improve the effectiveness of its resources. In 1960, World Book incorporated its first Trans-Visions in the articles on the "Frog" and the "Human Body." By turning those acetate pages, printed in full color, readers peeled away layer after anatomical layer to reveal ever increasing detail. In 1961, World Book became the first encyclopedia published in braille. In 1980, it became the first encyclopedia reproduced as a voice recording. This recorded edition included audio cassette tapes of the encyclopedia, a special audio cassette player, and indexes reproduced in braille and large type.

When digital technology came of age, World Book faced the prospect of interpreting and adopting the new technology in a manner consistent with the image the encyclopedia had developed over the preceding seventy years. Alternately, the prospect could be considered one of reinterpreting the World Book image in the light of capabilities provided by the new technology. For example, digitizing the text would capture the carefully structured and tightly edited articles already designed to make information easy to find in print. But the book metaphor does not always succeed on a computer screen. What could World Book do to endow its digital incarnation with preeminent search capabilities made available by the new technology?