Thank you to everyone who responded to my question about World Book Online and
whether you would recommend it. I am writing a grant to get an online encyclopedia
and wondered if World Book Online would work for high school.
Cindra Boring
Media Specialist
William Blount High School
9th Grade Academy
Maryville, TN 37801
cindra.boring@blountk12.org<mailto:Cindra.boring@blountk12.org>
Here are the responses:
Library Media Network Emails about World Book Online
We have a subscription and I like it a lot. I do not know if it would be the best
for a HS though. I work at a middle school and one of the features I like is that
there are article available in all reading levels (from elementary to HS) available
to the students and the articles come in several different languages, which is a
nice feature. I also like the videos and pictures that are available and the fact
the students can save research in their own "My research" folder or it may be
called "My Backpack". Those are my favorite things.
I do like that it can be used from home, there are video tutorials and the
timelines are nice too.
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We have Worldbook and it is fine. Access is good from school and home. That said,
I prefer Grolier Online. It is more appealing in my opinion. But the coverageand
features are pretty similar. Lisa
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If you haven't gotten a trial subscription--get one! They have the password
available each 4-6 weeks and should let you evaluate it fully. I haven't been able
to afford it yet, but I've used the trial several times over the past few years
with students and classes. It's a fabulous resource.
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We've had it District-wide for a couple of years now. Generally, it is used more by
the younger kids than the older ones. HS kids seem to think that Google is the ONLY
source of information!
I'd say that, yes, it is worth the money.
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It is a very popular choice and one of the most reliable. It is also provided by
many state agencies at a reduced rate for schools ( eg. it available in MN through
MINITEX, but not sure if TN has something similar), but you can also get volume
discounts for districts. I used it at my previous elementary assignments and also
purchased WorldBook Kids online for my youngest users. Many schools are opting for
it instead of purchasing the print version.
You can also find reviews for it in the Reference Books Bulletin section of
Booklist magazine.
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We subscribe to WB Online through a consortia of schools in SE Montana (actually
schools in several counties). For the money we pay it is well worth the price.
Our area WB sales rep will come and do FREE in-service for teachers, which is a
nice feature. There are also good tutorials available online.
Each article on WBO gives you the citation information needed (author, title, etc.)
which makes doing citations easier for students.
Our Spanish teacher has access to the Spanish Encyclopedia. There is a French
option available but we don't subscribe to that. We have expanded our subscription
to include the Discovery package for Resource, and that is well used.
"VAN"
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The state of Texas purchased Ebsco and Britannica for the schools in texas. I
added world book because of the low level
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I have it and teach it in my classes but am not sure how much it is used. It also
includes a Spanish section if you have a Spanish, ESL, or bilingual program
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Hi - There are several encyclopedias avaialble. Through different funding our
school has three. My favorite is World Book. The kids like it. It is easy to use
and navigate. We have the three levels- kids, student, and advanced. The pricing is
very affordable for use and costs much less than the printed version. Hope this
helps.
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It is a wonderful resource. We have made it possible for all 50,000 students and
their families in Anchorage to have this resource available at all times in school
and in their homes.
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We get it free thru our public library system. Students just need to have a library
card number to access it.
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We use Britannica Online, which the teachers and kids love. I'd check that out
before buying World Book.
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We subscribe to both World Book and Grolier. We use both quite a bit. I think they
are worth the money. As to which is best, I would recommend that you try to get
trials of both.
Good luck,
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I love it. The kids can access it from home and school. The Student version
allows them to save research and allows them to save resource information from
other sites and books. My students also benefit from the magazine search provided
through World Book.
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I have it and really like it!
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In the Highline School district we have a site license that allows access 24/7
(password if loggin in from off site). I LOVE IT - especially the World Book
advanced module -- great for finding primary sources, etc...
This is about the 8th year we have had the license and it's never even questioned
at the district level -- it's so worth it. I also use it to show the differences
between Wikipedia (ok) and Worldbook (better than).
There is also a module (Discovery I think) that will translate in to some of the
languages spoken here (40+ languages and counting amoung our student population) --
it's not the whole article and ther translations are pretty simplistic - but it
give the kids at least a start on understand. It will also read it out loud -- we
don't encourage that in the library -- too noisy! but that a great featrue for
home use.
Talk to you worldbook rep -- have them out to demo it for you teachers and you'll
be amazed at how they will pick it up.
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We have used this for about 3 years and I love it. There is also a feature for
your students who need more assistance that will read the articles to them. It does
cost extra but is worth the money. My special ed teachers all use it.
--
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We use it K-12. It is a great resource, especially for K-8. It also has an abridged
Spanish version and a lot of information on PA history (special section for each
state).
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I love it! In fact, I just ordered their new Discovery as well. It is so easy to
use and has so many types of resources. I highly recommend it.
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We have World Book Web and we LOVE it!!!!!!
Yes you can use it at home. The best thing about it is that it comes translatable
into 14 languages (great for at home link for ESL children!!!) AND it reads the
articles out loud to you!! We had Grolier and World Book Web is so much easier to
navigate. Before we subscribed we used the trial subscription for a month and the
kids were really excited about it, which is why we didn't hesitate to switch. I am
only grades 5 & 6, but our high school also switched, and they love it.
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All 10 librarians in my district have to pay for it out of our budgets....one of us
can't opt out. My teachers don't use it. I've introduced it to the kids every
year...but I could live without it, and I'm going to advocate not buying it again
this year...especially with all the budget cuts!
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Our district subscribes to World Book Online and, yes, I think it is worth it! The
teachers love some of the research features. The high school teachers and students
especially love World Book Advanced which adds to the cost but gives you access to
lots of primary source material. I think it is one of the best online investments
we ever made. As a district we also have access to the Spanish version and World
Book for Kids.
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OK--this is just the opinion of the students in my school.
We have both World Book and Britannica online.
Last year I had the students do a comparison and contrast unit using the 2
online encyclopedias. More than half of our younger students (2nd and 3rd grade)
preferred Britannica. They thought it was easier to navigate around in and the
language in the articles was easier to understand.
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I am the media specialist in a pre-k to 4th grade school. We have had a World Book
Online subscription for 4 years. I like the different levels. I don't know if it
is the best for high school students.
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I have a subscription. It mostly gets used for country reports for the French and
Spanish classes. Last year, I showed the kids how to use it to find information on
the civil war. For me, it is worth the money to have them use other sources besides
Wikipedia.
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I don't know if it's the best encyclopedia, but we had a limited budget to buy
online resources. We signed up for several different trials, pushed the teachers
and kids like crazy to try them as much as possible, and then we took a survey
about the resource everyone liked best. World Book Online beat the others hands
down so that's what we bought. It continues to get a lot of use. I think it's worth
the money.
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We switched from Groliers to World Book this year. It's cheaper, and I like it a
lot better. The only thing I don't like is that at elementary, we loved the
Amazing Animals part of Groliers, and World Book has no equivalent.
Most databases will give you a login and password that kids can use to access it at
home.
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I subscribe to World Book Online. With my subscription I have World Book for Kids,
World Book Student (junior high), World Book Advanced (senior high), World Book
Spanish (entire encyclopedia in Spanish), World Book Discover (for special needs,
has life skills, career information and will read anything you highlight aloud--in
14 languages!) As to whether or not it is the best out there....I don't know. It
is user friendly and a good buy for the money. All of these encyclopedias are
bundled together for one price. You can access it from home too.
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We have subscribed to Britannica and Grolier online for many years.
Both can be used from home. We have had trial subscriptions to World Book online
several times and our faculty always says it is not as good as our current
subscriptions. I suggest you get trials to them and then compare for your needs.
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