The World Book Difference

World Book presents a universe of information. From A to Z, the world of knowledge unfolds.

World Book articles are written clearly. They're concise and interesting...packed with facts instead of adjectives. And because each article is tightly written, there are more of them in each volume.

* Authored and edited by 3,700 experts
* Checked and rechecked
* Updated more than any other reference source
* Straightforward and understandable to students of all ages and levels.

World Book Online Fact Sheet

World Book Online is the premier online general encyclopedia and reference resource. Click here to access a fact sheet on World Book's suite of online products.

World Book's Classroom Research Project ®
--tracking how children read and learn through the World Book experience.

Children's language changes continuously. Their understanding level changes, too, usually upward. Our writers stay relevant by using the classroom as their resource.

World Book's long-established Classroom Research Project is an annual source of guidance for World Book editors, providing them with current information on student interests. For more than 40 years, some 250 classrooms and school libraries across the United States and Canada have participated in the World Book Classroom Research Project. From a global perspective, schools in India and Australia are also involved. Last year, World Book received about 50,000 data cards from students in grades 3-12, recording the topics they looked up most frequently. During the 1998-1999 school year, we found that students in the Classroom Research Project researched the following topics most frequently in this order:

1. Dog
2. Snake
3. Cat
4. Dinosaur
5. Fish
6. Horse
7. Bird
8. President of the United States
9. Hawaii
10. California

How about Kangaroo? What questions are hopping around children's minds these days?

Research cards from the Classroom Research Project help editors as they prepare or revise articles. For the topic of Kangaroo, they indicate that students were seeking the following information:

Number of species Why they have big hind legs How far they can jump How long they live in mother's pouch Do they all have pouches Where kangaroos live What they eat What they look like What the babies are called Life span
	Staying in touch with young minds is a vital part of the World Book Difference!

Good writing starts with experts--our contributors and editors

World Book engages over 3,700 scholars and other internationally recognized experts as contributors, authenticators, reviewers, and consultants for the vast reaches of information we print. For example:

On Medicine, Marc B. Garnick, professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, prepared the Medicine article, as well as entries on Colon Cancer, Ovarian Cancer, and Testicular Cancer.

On Astronomy, Jay M. Pasachoff, field memorial professor of astronomy and director of the Hopkins Observatory at Williams College, prepared articles on Astronomy, Sun, Planet, and Solar System.

On Tennis, Chris Evert, winner of 18 women's singles titles, reviewed and authenticated the Tennis and Arthur Ashe articles.

On Fiction, Michael Seidel, Professor of English and comparative literature, Columbia University, prepared articles on more than 20 British writers.

On Dinosaurs, David B. Weishampel, co-editor of "The Dinosauria;" co-author, "The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs;" wrote the Dinosaur article and entries on Hadrosaur and Oviraptor.

Donald J. Raleigh, professor of history, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, writes about Russia.

Stanley Fischer, first deputy managing director, International Monetary Fund, is a contributor to the Money article.

World Book's Fivefold Article Plan

World Book's fivefold plan for major articles brings together five basic elements:

1. A complete story.
World Book articles are comprehensive and give readers a solid foundation about a subject.

2. Visual aids.
A wide variety of visual aids clarifies meaning and reinforces learning. Photographs, drawings, paintings, maps, diagrams, charts, and graphs make information come alive.

3. Related articles and reading.
A list of related World Book articles encourages readers to broaden their study of a subject. Many articles also include booklists that lead the user to further reading on the subject. These lists of books have been carefully selected to represent the most current, balanced scholarship.

4. An outline.
The outline gives readers an overall view of the article and shows the interrelationship of its units.

5. Questions.
A list of questions at the end of major articles reviews important information in the article. The questions are designed to reinforce understanding of the major areas of the topic.

World Book Revision Rate

World Book updates its content more thoroughly and often than any other encyclopedia. Most multi-volume reference books revise 5 percent of their total pages. Each year, World Book revises more than a quarter of its entire content. This comprehensive adjustment covers:

* Topics
* Vocabulary
* Grade level
* Interest level
* Writing style
* Maps
* Photographs
* Charts and graphs

The Living Word Vocabulary

Extensive testing shows the percentages of students at a given grade level who know the meaning of thousands of words. A list of 44,000 such "living words" issued to check the readability of World Book. For example, in the fourth grade, these words were understood by the following percentage of students:

Design 67%
Dipper 85%
Follow 73%
Hospitalize 90%
Pottery 78%

Fact Checking at World Book

Fact checking of new and extensively revised encyclopedia articles and the text of publications such as Animals of the World is one of the jobs of World Book's Research Department. Separating the fact-checking process from the work of the subject editors helps to increase objectivity. A department of 8 full-time researchers supports the work of editors who are updating existing articles, seeking background for new articles, or preparing new publications such as Animals. The researchers also respond to inquiries from readers.

In fact checking, questioning virtually every word is the key. Researchers check statements of fact, claims, explanations, and descriptions. Material generally is verified in at least three independent reliable sources, excluding other general encyclopedias. Many of these sources can be found in World Book's in-house reference library. In some cases, fact checking will require the use of sources in addition to or other than those available in-house.

What we have come to call "Gutenberg's wine-and-cheese party" is an example of a claim that required use of outside sources strong in historical detail. The answer to the question of whether Johannes Gutenberg first rigged up a cheese press or a wine press to fashion the first printing press was uncovered by the Research Department's quest. The answer is: not exactly either! Gutenberg hired a local artisan to build a rudimentary printing press to Gutenberg's specifications, which had quite a bit in common with a wine press.

A claim about the North Pole also had the Research Department getting to the bottom of the story. A contributor's manuscript indicated that African American Arctic explorer Matthew Alexander Henson had claimed in his 1912 autobiography to have reached the North Pole ahead of Robert Peary during their 1909 expedition. No supporting evidence for this claim could be found. A World Book researcher tracked down a rare copy of Henson's auto-biography and determined that Henson himself had made no such claim in the book. Rather, it was Herbert Frisby in the introduction to the autobiography who made the assertion.

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World Book Editorial
Sara Dreyfuss, Editorial Director
Jeff De la Rosa, Managing Editor
Michael Noren, Managing Editor
Michael B. Schuldt, Managing Editor