by May Plaige

Created on: February 01, 2009

Finding the best online encyclopedia as a college student is based strongly in what you intend to do with the information found in the encyclopedia. Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) is widely looked down upon by teachers, college professionals, and experts alike, but it has its place. For a student who just heard their lecturing professor mention a name they didn't recognize, skimming over a Wikipedia article on the person would help explain the reference and put the name into context. All you do with the information in this case is internalize it to understand the current discussion, so the sometimes questionable reliability of Wikipedia is not necessarily a high threat.

Wikipedia, though, should not be relied upon as a source for more in-depth research while in college. If the professor is doing more than simply alluding to an unknown person or event, and it seems as if accurate knowledge of the topic will be necessary to understand the lecture, then you may find that Google ranks encyclopedia.com as the most widely used online encyclopedia. Encyclopedia.com, like dictionary.com, collects information from a number of sources and compiles them onto one page for review. You can read over the articles from each source, consider similar information to be important and accurate, and gain more reliable and possibly more thorough knowledge about a topic. In this case, you are trying to understand a topic more deeply for your personal understanding of course content, but not necessarily doing research for an assignment. In that case, you would want something much more reliable, such as the Encyclopedia Britannica.

The Encyclopedia Britannica, unlike Wikipedia or Encyclopedia.com, is actually a centuries-old, well-established and respected printed encyclopedia which educators and professionals alike consider reliable and trustworthy. The Encyclopedia Britannica broke into electronic publishing in the 1980's, and today can be found at www.britannica.com. If you are writing a research paper or working on a project that requires reliable research, this is the place to go for it. Professors will be less likely to snub a reference to www.britannica.com on a works cited page, in most cases.

An even better feature of the online Encyclopedia Britannica, though, is the number of other resources available which can be of great use to a college student. Additional reading, related articles, and external websites are expected add-ons of a useful online encyclopedia, but Britannica's site takes it further with videos, a blog, and even games to help supplement your learning. The tools can even be used as a part of a presentation to explain your research if needed, with the appropriate reference and citation, of course.

Choose the online encyclopedia you use wisely, and remember to always keep in mind the purpose and reliability of your research. Under-researching for an assignment or over-researching for a quick reference in class are both mistakes you don't want to be making in college.

Learn more about this author, May Plaige.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.