I grew up with the World Book Encyclopedia, copyright 1964. Older, so let's look at a topic that hasn't changed much in 50 years, picked out at random: Anchor, as in a boat anchor.
I was at my parent's house, where I grew up, and I thought I'd compare Wikipedia (My current favorite encyclopedia) vs the encyclopedia I grew up with.
(Because this is a simple Wednesday-morning project, it's a bit limited but gives you an idea. I used my cellphone camera cuz I didn't have a scanner, so some of the pics are pretty crummy.)
Click on the pictures to enlarge.
I grew up with the World Book Encyclopedia, copyright 1964. Older, so let's look at a topic that hasn't changed much in 50 years, picked out at random: Anchor, as in a boat anchor.
At some time in the intervening years, my parents also got the Encyclopedia Britannica, often considered The encyclopedia, in english at least. It consists of the Micropaedia and the Macropaedia, a brief and a detailed treatment of topics. As such, the Macro has no Anchor article! All the info is in the Micro article.
For this test, I looked at how much content was in the Anchor article, both text and pictures.
World Book
Anchor covers one entire page. Most of it is pictures with captions.
Britannica Micro
Anchor covers one entire column, 1/3 of a page. There are two drawings.
Britannica Macro
There is no Anchor article. See Britannica Micro.
Wikipedia
The Anchor article goes on for pages, with several pictures, mostly color photos.
The article is so long it has a table of contents. It has sections on the history, various designs and how they solve various problems, and a description of Kedging, which uses a small anchor for sail navigation in tight spaces.
For this test, I looked to see what was immediately before and after the Anchor article, just a sample showing how thickly they cover the alphabet. I omitted simple redirections, as in See Trojan Planets.
World Book Anchor is between Ancestor Worship and Anchorage (Alaska).
Britannica Micro Anchor is between Anchiterium and Anchorage (Alaska). Ancestor Worship is six articles back.
Britannica Macro
There is no Anchor article. But the Ancestor Worship article is a good 2.5 pages of dense print (see one at left). The article after is Ancient Epigraphic Remains.
Wikipedia Anchor is between Anchomanes and Anchor, Illinois. Ancestor worshipper is 160 or 190 articles back, in the middle of about 45 other articles that start with the word Ancestor or a variant.
When you look up ANC in Encyclopedia Britannica, it says "See African National Congress".
When you look up ANC in Wikipedia, you get the page that says:
African National Congress
(Redirected from ANC)
"ANC" redirects here. For other uses, see ANC (disambiguation).
When you click that link, you get a disambiguation page that says:
1 OrganizationsAbout 20 links to other articles, several other interpretations that don't have articles yet, in five categories.2 Companies
- Armenian National Congress, a coalition of political parties in Armenia
- African National Congress, a revolutionary movement which became the ruling political party in South Africa in the 1994 election.
- Advisory Neighborhood Commission, community-based legislative councils which advise the other branches of the city government on neighborhood matters in Washington, D.C.
- Army Nurse Corps, a nursing branch of the United States Army
- All Nations' Church (Apostolic Church), an apostolic church located in Kennington, London, UK, also known as The All Nations Centre
...
- Agilent Technologies Inc.'s ticker symbol on the New York Stock Exchange
- All News Channel, a former TV channel
- ANC Sports, a sports marketing and signage company
...