Encyclopedia Americana HELP
Basic Encyclopedia Functions
The Encyclopedia Americana's powerful search engine allows you to search the encyclopedia in three ways: by article title, by text string (full-text searches), or by article topic.
Each search window generates a Search Results list, from which you may open the articles that satisfy your search parameters.
For advanced search techniques, including the use of Boolean operators and wildcards, see Advanced Searches.
Article Title Searches. Article Title searches, performed using the search term entry window (upper right-hand corner, or, in the case of the text-only version, near top), look for any and all occurrences of a word within the list of article titles.
You can therefore use this search in two ways: to find a specific article or to find all articles with specific words in them.
Finding a Specific Article. If you are interested in finding a specific article and you already know its title, simply
- Select Article Title Search,
- Type the title into the search term entry window,
- Hit Enter or click the arrow button to launch the search.
A
Search Results list will open with the article listed in it.
Click the title to open the article.
Finding Articles with Terms in Common. You can use Article Title Search even if you don't know the exact title of an article.
For instance, you might want a list of all entries with the word computer in the title.
First select Article Title Search, then type the word computer in the search term entry window.
Run the search by hitting Enter or clicking the arrow button.
Note that the search engine automatically searches on plural and other forms of a search term.
Thus, in searching on the word computer, you will get results showing articles that include the word computers in the title; and in searching on the word program, you will get results showing articles that include the word programming in the title.
You can perform simple word searches or construct more complex search expressions (for instance, by using Boolean operators) by selecting Full-Text Search and typing the desired expression in the search term entry window.
Hit Enter or click the arrow button to launch the search.
Searching for a Word. To search for a word, type the word in the search term entry window.
If two or more words are entered and no Boolean operator is specified, the default value AND is used to evaluate the query.
Variant and inflected forms of the word (e.g., computers, computing) will automatically be retrieved.
For information on refining searches using Boolean operators and wildcards, see Advanced Searches.
Searching for an Exact Phrase. To search for an exact phrase, enclose the phrase in single quotes (example: ![[single_quotation_mark,_left]](/ea-ol/media/3700/lsquo.gif)
Waite Agricultural Research Institute![[single_quotation_mark,_right]](/ea-ol/media/3700/rsquo.gif)
).
The search engine will look for all words in the phrase with the exception of certain words that occur frequently, known as Stop Words.
In order to increase search speed, Stop Words are never searched.
These include Boolean operators and terms such as any, besides, over, and until. A search for "Romeo and Juliet," therefore, will treat and as a Boolean operator, not a word in your search string, and generate a list of all articles in which both terms appear, no matter how widely separated.
A search for "Under the Volcano" will ignore under and the altogether.
There are over two hundred stop words in the encyclopedia.
If a search does not yield the results you expect, check the stop word list to be sure you have not inadvertently tried to search for one of them.
Query Operators. A variety of operators control the logical relationship among words in a search string or specify the degree of proximity of the search terms.
See Advanced Searches for more information.
Once you have run a search, a Search Results list will appear, listing all of the articles that satisfy your search parameters.
Articles are listed in groups of approximately 25 titles.
Use the Next and Previous buttons to advance to the next group or return to the previous one.
To open an article from the Search Results list, click on its title.
When you select an article from the Search Results window, the article will open at the head of the entry, not at the search term.
To find the search term in the body of the article, use the Find function on your browser.
For information about how to navigate within an article, see Article Features.
To aid your search, each article title on the Search Results list is followed by one or more lines of article text.
Use this text to help you to decide whether or not to view that article before actually selecting it.
Yet another way of finding articles is to browse the list of subject categories in the Americana.
From the Americana home page, click on Browse to access the subject category list.
On every page the Americana's main subject categories are listed on the navigation bar on the left-hand side of the screen under the heading "Browse." In the case of the text-only version, subject categories are listed at the bottom of each page.
Click on any one of the categories to produce a hierarchical list of subcategories.
Clicking on any underlined subcategory will produce a hyperlinked list of article titles classified under that heading.
Note that, in order to speed load time, biographical entries are not included in the Browse feature.
To locate biographies, use the Search window or click on "Profiles" to browse over 1,500 of the most frequently consulted biographical entries.
The Profiles feature provides quick access to a select number of biographies chosen from among the many thousands that are included in the Encyclopedia Americana.
The main Profiles page, which is updated weekly, contains a list of four feature biographies.
Clicking on the title of the entry brings up the corresponding encyclopedia article.
Entries can also be accessed by means of the category links appearing at the top of the page.
Clicking on a category opens a list of biographies belonging to it, and clicking on an entry in the list brings up the corresponding encyclopedia article.
Biographies of persons not included in the Profiles feature may be found by performing a search for them in the encyclopedia as a whole, using the search window at the top of the page.
To return to the main Profiles page after selecting one of the choices, use your browser's Back button or, in the graphical version of the encyclopedia, click on "Profiles" at the top of the page.
The Editors' Picks is a weekly feature that offers readers an engaging view of various topics or ideas.
Readers are provided with a short essay that synthesizes various concepts and topics.
Embedded in the text are hyperlinks to related Americana articles.
Highly recommended Web sites, which are part of the Grolier Internet Index, that may be used as a starting point for further research, are listed at the end of the feature.
From the main page of Editors' Picks, click on the title of any Pick listed to go to that featured entry.
All Editors' Picks features are archived.
Archived features may be accessed by clicking on the subject categories listed at the top of the page.
A list of all Editors' Picks comes up, arranged by subject category.
Picks may be accessed by clicking on their title.
To return to the main Editors' Picks page after selecting one of the choices, use your browser's Back button or, in the graphical version of the encyclopedia, click on "Editors' Picks" at the top of the page.
Most of the articles in the Encyclopedia Americana have been prepared by authors who are leading authorities in their fields.
These specialists work closely with the Americana's editorial staff to ensure proper coverage of a topic and to create articles that are clear and concise.
In addition, distinguished advisers have assisted the editors in planning major revisions and organizing the information into convenient forms of presentation.
In some instances, such as when a brief outline of facts is primarily what is needed, unsigned articles prepared by qualified generalists have been included.
In cases where an article by a contributor has been updated or otherwise amended by the editors, an asterisk (*) follows the contributor's name.
Many entries in the Encyclopedia Americana contain additional materials, including maps, flags, tables, and links to related sites on the World Wide Web.
You can access these additional materials by clicking on the corresponding button on the article toolbar (at right of article text).
Print/E-Mail. Any Grolier Online® page can be printed using the browser's Print utility.
However, if you wish to print only a portion of a page—for instance, one or more sections of a long article—click the Print/E-Mail button and follow the simple instructions given there.
Articles or portions of articles may also be sent as an e-mail by using this feature.
Contents. Longer or more complex entries are divided into sections.
Clicking on the Contents button will bring up a list of sections for the article.
Clicking on a section title will take you directly to the section.
Maps/Media. This button opens a full-size image of any map that is shown as a small icon at the start of the article.
(The map icon itself may be clicked on to open the map, as well.) In the case of articles having multiple maps, a list of titles will display.
To open a map from the list, click on its title.
Multimedia displays (e.g., QuickTime) are accessed in the same way.
Multimedia programs (e.g., QuickTime) are linked to certain articles involving concepts that are usefully explicated by means of visual aids, such as those in the sciences.
Multimedia displays may be accessed by clicking on the Maps/Multimedia button and then choosing the icon that applies.
Flags. The Flags button opens a full-size image of the flag associated with a particular article.
A descriptive caption appears below the image of the flag.
Tables. This button opens a list of tables, factboxes, information-highlight boxes, or glossaries associated with the article.
To open a table, click on its title in the list.
Journal Entries. Relevant information from the Americana Journal, a weekly news summary, is accessed by means of this button.
Clicking on the button brings up a set of results for the article.
For complete information on using the Americana Journal, see below.
Bibliography. This button brings you directly to the bibliography for the article.
Articles with multiple sections may contain separate bibliographies for each section.
Further Reading. To find additional bibliographic resources, click on the Further Reading button.
This will bring you to a list of matching results retrieved from WorldCat®, the OCLC Online Union Catalog, a database of more than 50 million records cataloged by OCLC Online Computer Library Center member libraries.
By clicking on an individual title from among the results you will be brought to a page that provides more details about the work and permits you to locate libraries holding it.
Further information about the service is available on the OCLC page.
To exit the page, click Exit.
Periodicals. Clicking on the Periodicals button will produce a list of abstracts of articles from newspapers, magazines, academic journals, travel guides, and other publications related to the topic of the encyclopedia entry.
Clicking on a title brings up the full text of the article.
Materials from hundreds of periodicals are available to Americana users.
For more information about Grolier Online periodical content, click the About link in the Periodicals window.
The Grolier Online Periodicals page is maintained in conjunction with EBSCO Content Solutions, a private content provider.
Further information is available on the Grolier Online Periodicals page.
Web Links. Clicking on the Web Links button will lead you to the Grolier Internet Index, a carefully selected collection of Web sites providing readers with related information on given subjects.
As these links are an integral part of the encyclopedia, all Web sites are reviewed and provided with brief annotations by Americana subject editors prior to inclusion.
Existing Web sites are reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that they remain current, accurate, and relevant.
Click on any Web site title in the Grolier Internet Index listing for a particular article to go to that Web site.
Related Articles. This button opens a selected list of encyclopedia articles, each of which contains information related to your search topic.
Click on any of the suggested links for further reading in the encyclopedia.
Next/Previous. To speed access times, longer articles have been subdivided into pages of more manageable size.
To navigate between these pages, simply use the Next and Previous buttons, as appropriate, to access the following or previous page.
The Americana Journal is a searchable database of events organized by nation and/or international organization and by date.
Journal entries are not raw news feeds; they consist of information on selected, newsworthy topics written by the staff of the Encyclopedia Americana and edited to the same exacting standards as the encyclopedia itself.
By utilizing the Journal's search engine, the user may examine events within a specific country in chronological fashion, or events worldwide on a specific date or within a specific date range.
Journal entries are written daily, as events dictate.
The entries are then checked and edited and are posted on our Web site on Friday of each week.
Because each entry is subject to this process of editorial review, there is often a one-week lag between the time an entry is written and the day it is published in the Journal.
Entries within a particular country may not be consecutive, because the Journal treats only events of particular interest to the international community.
In practical terms, this means that not every nation will receive a journal entry for each day.
An additional element of the Journal is the News Source, a searchable database of online news sources (newspapers and journals) throughout the world.
The News Source is a compendium of indigenous and major U.S.
news outlets available on the World Wide Web.
Searching the News Source. To search the News Source, click on the News Source button in the column at the left of your browser screen.
Choose a country from the drop-down menu in the pop-up window, and a list will appear in the window.
Click on the URL address of the periodical you wish to examine, and it will appear in the center of your browser window.
To return to the Journal, click on the browser's Back button.
The text-only version of the Journal, does not have a News Source button.
However, a search can be conducted from the News Source icon on the Country or Date Results pages.
Cursor to the bottom of any of these Results pages and choose a country from the drop-down menu.
All News Source Results pages have a drop-down menu at the bottom of the page.
You can search the Journal in six ways:
- by country (or international organization)
- by specific date
- by date range
- by full-text search
- by both country and date or date range
- by country and date or date range and full-text search
using the drop-down menus on the Journal Search page.
To access the Journal Search page from within the Encyclopedia Americana, click on the Journal icon beneath the Encyclopedia Americana banner, then click on the Search Journal icon at the top right-hand corner of your browser window.
In the text-only version the Search Journal button is located just above the title of the Feature Story.
To access the Journal Search page from within the Journal, click on the Search Journal icon at the top right-hand corner of your browser window, or, in the text-only version, on the Search Journal button above the Feature Story title.
To search the Journal by country or international organization,
- Choose a country/organization name from the drop-down list.
- Click on the Search button.
- The Country Results page will show you all entries for that country, arranged in chronological order, most recent date first.
To search the Journal by a specific date,
- Choose any combination of year, month, and day from the drop-down menus.
Note that you must choose a specific date (year, month, and day) in order to run the search.
If you fail to specify any one of these, an error message will prompt you for a complete date.
- Click on the Search button.
The Date Results page will show you all entries for that date, arranged alphabetically by country/organization.
To search the Journal by a date range,
- Choose any combination of year, month, and day from the drop-down menus, placing the earlier date of the range in "From" and the later date in "To." Note that you must choose a specific date (year, month, and day) for both "From" and "To" in order to run the search.
If you fail to specify any one of these, an error message will prompt you for a complete date.
- Click on the Search button.
The Date Range Results page will show you all the entries for that date range, arranged in chronological groupings, with the most recent date first.
Within each chronological grouping, the entries are arranged in alphabetical order by country.
To search the Journal by Full Text Search,
- Enter a term in Full Text Search.
Boolean operator "and" and "or" will function in the Full Text Search only if they are enclosed in parenthesis.
Example: ("Milosevic" AND "The Hague").
- Click on the Search button.
The Full Text Results page will show you all the entries containing the term you entered in Full Text Search, arranged in chronological groupings, with the most recent date first.
Within each chronological grouping, the entries are arranged in alphabetical order by country.
To search the Journal by both nation and date or date range,
- Choose a country/organization name from the drop-down list.
- Then choose a specific date or date range from the drop-down menus.
Note that you must choose specific dates (year, month, and day) in order to run the search.
If you fail to specify any one of these, an error message will prompt you for a complete date.
- Click on the Search button.
The Country Results page will show all the entries for the specific date or date range in that particular country.
To search the Journal by country, date or date range, and full-text,
- Choose a country/organization name from the drop-down list.
- Then choose a specific date or date range from the drop-down menus.
Note that you must choose specific dates (year, month, and day) in order to run the search.
If you fail to specify any one of these, an error message will prompt you for a complete date.
- Enter a term in the Full Text Search.
Boolean operator "and" and "or" will function in the Full Text Search only if they are enclosed in parenthesis.
Example: ("Milosevic" AND "The Hague").
- Click on the Search button.
The Country Results page will show all the entries for the country and date or date range, specified that contain the term(s) entered in the Full Text Search.
The entries will be arranged in chronological order, most recent date first.
To clear a search and start over, Click on the Clear button and enter a new search.
The results of the search you requested display in one of two types of Results pages.
Searches specifying a country/organization display in a Country Results page.
Searches by date display in a Date Results page.
Country Results Page. Results for a given nation are displayed chronologically, most recent entry first.
A Journal Toolbar appears at the top of the page, providing links to relevant information on other sites.
For more information about the Journal Toolbar, see below under the Journal Toolbar.
Results display 25 entries per page.
If more entries are found, use the Next button to advance to the next page.
Date Results Page. There are two kinds of Date Results pages: one generated by a single date search; one by a date-range search.
Results for a single date are displayed alphabetically by country.
Results for a date-range search are arranged chronologically, with the most recent date first and the countries arranged alphabetically under each date.
The toolbar for each nation displays beside the entry for that nation.
For more information about the Journal Toolbar, see below under the Journal Toolbar.
Results display 25 to a page.
If more than 25 entries are found, use the Next button to advance to the next page.
Toggling between Country and Date Results. Clicking on a dateline in the Country Results page will run a search for all events on that specific date.
Clicking on the Country name in the Date Results page will run a search for all events for that specific country.
Each Results page contains one or more toolbars associated with specific countries or organizations.
These toolbars allow you to link to important information about the country/organization you have searched, bringing a wealth of background information to your desktop instantly.
The icons on the Journal Toolbar are described below:
Linking to the Encyclopedia Americana. Links to the corresponding article in the Encyclopedia Americana.
Flags. Displays the flag of the nation searched (if applicable) in a pop-up window.
To close the window and return to the main Results page, click on the Close button.
The text-only Journal displays flags in the main browser window.
To return to the main Results page, click on the Back button below the flag.
Flags cannot be printed from within the Journal.
To print a flag, return to the encyclopedia article and print from there.
Maps. Displays the map of the nation searched (if applicable) in a pop-up window.
To close the window and return to the main Results page, click on the Close button below the map.
In the text-only Journal, maps are displayed in the main browser window.
To return to the main Results page, click on your browser's Back button.
Maps cannot be printed from within the Journal. To print a map, return to the encyclopedia article and print from there.
Internet Links. Links to the Grolier Internet Index, a repository of Web links chosen by the editors of the Encyclopedia Americana for the corresponding article.
News Source Links. Provides links to real-time indigenous and major U.S.
news outlets on the World Wide Web.
The Americana search engine offers a variety of query operators that you can use to modify your search parameters.
These include Boolean operators, wildcards, and operators that indicate the proximity of search terms to one another.
(NOTE: This information applies only to the graphical version of the encyclopedia; for information about Advanced Searches using the text-only version, see Accessibility, below.)
Boolean Operators. When you use Boolean operators (AND, OR, or NOT) between words in your search string, you are specifying a particular logical relationship between the terms of your expression, summarized in the list below.
- x
AND y: Both X and Y are true.
When running a full-text search, the results list will contain articles in which both terms appear
- x
OR y: Either X or Y are true.
When running a full-text search, the results list will contain articles in which either term or both terms appear
- x
NOT y: X is true, but Y is not.
When running a full-text search, the results list will contain articles in which X appears but Y does not.
You may combine Boolean operators in a single query.
For instance, the expression "New AND York NOT City" will find all articles containing the words New and York but not the word City.
In general, queries evaluate from left to right.
You may use parentheses to modify the order in which queries evaluate.
Wildcards. Wildcards are used in queries to specify variables of 0, 1, or more characters at the wildcard position.
- ? (single character): Use the question mark to represent a single variable character.
For instance, the expression "fi?m" will return film and firm
- $ (zero or one character): Use the dollar sign to represent one or no variable characters.
For instance, the expression "colo$r" will return both colour and color
- * (zero or more characters): Use the asterisk to represent a variable string of zero or more characters.
For instance, the expression "medic*" will return words such as medicine, medicate, and medic.
Similarly, "*oon" will return, among others, balloon, moon, and croon.
Proximity Operators. Proximity operators indicate the degree of proximity of search terms, in other words, how close to one another they must be in order to satisfy the search expression.
The operators are Proximity, Adjacency, and Near.
- x
W/n y (proximity): Use W/n, where n indicates the number of words within which y must occur after, and only after, x.
The proximity operator is unidirectional.
For instance, "lion w/5 veldt" will find all articles in which the word veldt follows the word lion by no more than five words.
It will not find instances in which lion follows veldt
- x
ADJ y (adjacency): Use ADJ to search for two words immediately adjacent to one another.
For instance, "fervent ADJ hope" will find all instances of the string fervent hope.
The ADJ operation is unidirectional, that is (using the example given above), it will search only for fervent followed by hope, not hope followed by fervent.
Note that the same results can be obtained using single quotes (fervent hope) around the expression
- x
Near/n y (near): The Near operator works just like the proximity operator, except that Near is bidirectional.
The search will find x near y in either order, within the specified number (n) of words.
Advanced Search Page. Searches by article topic and form are run from the Advanced Search page, which can be accessed from the Advanced Search button below the search term window.
Unlike article-title or full-text searches, which look for specific articles or words in the encyclopedia, Advanced Search allows you to search for classes of articles grouped on the basis of their contents or subject matter.
And, unlike the Browse feature, Advanced Search allows you to search for articles classified not only by academic discipline (Subject index) but also by type of article (Form index) and/or by geographical location (Place index).
You can run these searches one at a time (for instance, by subject only) or in combination with each other (for instance, by subject, place, and time) for more focused search results.
And you can even add search terms from the full-text index to the search string, for maximum specificity.
To run an Advanced Search (from the Advanced Search page), you use the Query Builder to select article classifiers from one or more of the Advanced Search indexes.
The simplest searches require only a few steps:
- Open the Query Builder by clicking on the Build Search button.
The Query Builder will appear in a separate window;
- Select an index from the drop-down menu;
- Select a classifier from within that index.
Please note that some indexes are hierarchical, containing more than one level of article classifiers.
If you wish, you may specify subcategories when prompted to do so in the dialog box;
- If you wish to search only one index, click Done when you have finished selecting a classifier.
The Query Builder will close, and your query string will be displayed near the bottom of the Advanced Search page.
For information on how to search more than one index, see Creating Queries on Multiple Indexes, below.
- Click on Perform Search to run the search.
The results of your search will be displayed in a Search Results list.
Creating Queries on Multiple Indexes. The most powerful feature of Advanced Search is its ability to search several indexes simultaneously.
For instance, you can search for the biographies of French painters by specifying:
- Subject=Arts/Visual Arts/Painting and Drawing
- Form=Biography
- Place=Europe/Western Europe/France
After you have selected your first classifier, click Add rather than Done.
Clicking the Add button causes the Query Builder to remain open so that you can select additional classifiers.
When you click Add, the Query Builder reappears with the index selector automatically reset to the start position.
Simply choose an index as you did before and specify a classifier in the pull-down windows.
Continue in this way until you have finished choosing all the desired classifiers, then click Done to close the Query Builder.
Running the Search. When you have completed building your query, the classifiers you have selected will be displayed near the bottom of the page.
To run the search for the classifiers you have selected, click on the Perform Search button.
Note that if you have queried multiple indexes, you may specify the Boolean relationship among the queries by clicking on the appropriate Boolean operators.
For instance, you can search for Subject=Science/Math AND Form=Biography to look for articles on mathematicians, or you can search for Subject=Science/Math NOT Form=Biography to find all articles on mathematics except biographies of mathematicians.
In general, queries are evaluated from top to bottom in the order written.
Unless you specify otherwise, the value for the Boolean operators is set to AND.
Deleting Query Strings. Click the checkbox at the left of each query to deselect that particular query string.
Deselected items will not be searched.
Using the Form Index. The Form index answers the question "What category of object is this article about?" Form is not a list of academic subjects but an indication of the type of thing treated in a given article.
Typical Form classifiers include biography, event, work, lifeform, concept, organization, or socioeconomic institution.
Form classifiers are designed to be used in conjunction with other indexes to restrict search results to a specific subcategory of articles on a given subject area or geographical range.
For instance, suppose you want to search for biographies of women in the field of dance.
A search of the Subject classifier Arts/Performing Arts/Dance alone will return a list of articles on dancers, dance styles, dance notation, choreography, dance education, and so forth.
But when you add Form=Biography/Female to the search string, the result will be a list of all, and only, women dancers in the Americana.
Changing the search string to Form=Work returns a list of ballets that are the subject of entries in the encyclopedia.
Getting used to working with the Form index may take some time, but once you understand how to use it, you will find it a powerful tool for focusing your searches.
Feel free to experiment with different combinations of Form with Subject and Place.
For instance, Place=Asia and Form=Lifeform returns a list of flora and fauna indigenous to Asia.
Form=Dysfunction and Subject=Science/Medicine will return a list of articles on diseases.
In short, a little creativity in shaping your search criteria using Form will be well rewarded in the specificity of the results you obtain.
Search Results List. Once you have run a search, a Search Results list will appear, listing all of the articles that satisfy your search parameters.
Articles are listed in groups of approximately 25 titles.
Use the Next button to advance to the next group of article titles, and use the Previous button to return to the previous group.
To open an article from the Search Results list, click on its title.
To aid your search, each article title on the Search Results list is followed by the first few lines of article text.
Use this text to help you to decide whether to view that article before actually selecting it.
Adding Search Terms. Adding a word or a text string to the Advanced Search queries is optional.
Remember that when you do so, you are limiting your search results to those articles that, in addition to satisfying your queries, also contain a specific word or text string.
So think carefully about your search strategy before running a full-text search in conjunction with an Advanced Search.
The following are words that have been omitted from the Americana search engine because they occur with such great frequency in the language as to potentially overwhelm any search results based on them.
Grolier Online is committed to providing accessible Web pages for disabled users and has enabled a variety of techniques and additional features in this product.
Following the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Checkpoints, Grolier has included a text-only version of the Encyclopedia Americana in the present release.
The W3C plays the leading role in defining standards for the Internet, including the promotion of a high degree of usability for people with disabilities.
The text-only version of the Encyclopedia Americana includes the features outlined below.
For further information about the Americana and its use, the user is advised to consult the full text of the Help utility as presented above.
Site Map. The main page of the text-only version is a site map with links to every part of the Americana.
Toggle Link. Pages throughout the encyclopedia have toggle links at the bottom (Toggle to Graphic or Toggle to Text-Only).
The user may switch templates while accessing the same content.
Keyboard Shortcuts. One of the ways in which the text-only version can be navigated is by means of keyboard shortcuts.
In addition to those shortcuts commonly supported by alternative Web browsers, as described in the WAI guidelines, the following have been defined specifically for use with the Americana:
Main Features
Alt-0
Encyclopedia Browse
Alt-J
Americana Journal
Alt-K
Editors' Picks
Alt-L
Help
Alt-O
Home
Alt-R
Profiles
Alt-U
About Americana
Alt-Y
Advanced Search
Browse Categories
Alt-1
Arts
Alt-2
Society
Alt-3
Geography
Alt-4
History
Alt-5
Philosophy
Alt-6
Religion
Alt-7
Sports
Alt-8
Science
Alt-9
Technology
Bypass Links. Invisible graphic links with text equivalents are available on all pages to help in skipping navigation bars or other repeated functions, thus facilitating direct access to content or other main areas of a page.
Limited Use of Graphic Buttons. Some users have difficulty reading text on graphic images.
There is very limited or no provision in Web browsers for enlarging graphics and allowing the text on the graphic to be readable for those with impaired sight.
Most links for navigating the Americana are text links, enabling users to increase the size of the font, and these text links, if needed.
Text Alternatives. Every graphic image has a text alternative.
This is accomplished by providing "alt" information for the graphic.
Browsers of Web content support "alt" and will display or read this text information for those unable to display or view the image.
Table Summaries. All complex content tables in the Americana have been supplied with text summaries to provide a text equivalent for a table that may be unreadable by some special media browsers.
Design Considerations. Several design factors ensure that text-only pages have
- significant contrast between background and foreground images and text
- style sheets, which allow for structure to play a more significant role in the presentation of the Web material, making the pages easier for an assistive application to render
- no page movement or flickering, to avoid affecting people with photosensitive epilepsy.
Pop-ups. No pop-up pages exist in the text-only version of the Americana, as recommended in the case of current text browsers such as Lynx.
Instead, full-size pages display selection lists and full-size graphics that, in the graphic version, are presented in pop-ups.
Advanced Search. For the text-only version, the Advanced Search feature has been streamlined.
It permits Boolean searches using pull-down menus, but it does not present the full array of indexes (Subject, Form, and Place) employed in the graphical version's expanded user interface, or Query Builder.
To perform a search, enter your search term in the Advanced Search window.
You may then refine the search by typing an additional term in one or both of the pull-down menus and selecting the operators AND, OR, or NOT to indicate the logical relations between terms.
See Advanced Search, above, for more information on conducting searches using Boolean operators.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is aimed at providing equal access of goods, services, and opportunities to people with disabilities.
Acknowledging these aims, Grolier Online presents in this release a specially designed text-only version of the Encyclopedia Americana. The text-only version conforms to the following standards.
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Level AA. The commitment of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is to lead the Web to its full potential, including promoting a high degree of usability for people with disabilities.
The Americana's attainment of Level AA conformance means that the product complies with all requirements identified by the W3C as priority 1 and priority 2—essentially those items outlined in the Accessibility section, above.
Further refinements (such as place-hold characters in dialog boxes and abbreviated table headings) are expected in the future.
Bobby Level AA. Bobby WorldWide, created by the nonprofit Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), is a tool for Web page authors that helps them identify those changes necessary to enable users with disabilities to more easily access their Web pages.
For example, a blind user will be aided by the addition of a sound track to a movie, and a hard-of-hearing user will be aided by the use of a written transcript of a sound file.
Bobby acts to recommend these features where they do not already exist on Web pages that contain video or audio elements.
The Americana's attainment of Bobby Level AA conformance means that the product complies with all requirements identified by Bobby WorldWide as key priorities in expanding opportunities for people with disabilities—again, those items outlined in the Accessibility section, above.
Further refinements (as noted above) are expected in the future.
U.S.
Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards. The Encyclopedia Americana also meets the federal Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards, known as Section 508.
The relevant Section 508 information is as follows:
On August 7, 1998, the President signed into law the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, which includes the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998.
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments, as amended by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, requires that when Federal agencies develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic and information technology, they shall ensure that the electronic and information technology allows Federal employees with disabilities to have access to and use of information and data that is comparable to the access to and use of information and data by Federal employees who are not individuals with disabilities, unless an undue burden would be imposed on the agency.
Section 508
also requires that individuals with disabilities, who are members of the public seeking information or services from the Federal agency, have access to and use of information and data that is comparable to that provided to the public who are not individuals with disabilities.
World Wide Web Browsers. The Encyclopedia Americana conforms to HTML 4.0 and has been configured to support the following Web browsers:
- Netscape Navigator, version 4.0 or higher
- Microsoft Internet Explorer, version 4.0 or higher
The product is optimized for Netscape Communicator 4.x or higher and Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher, which support an expanded user interface for the Advanced Search feature.
Netscape 6.0 is not supported.
Settings. For best appearance, we recommend the following display configurations:
Font. Many special characters in the text of articles are displayed as GIF images in 12-point type and cannot be sized.
For maximum compatibility and depending on your browser, set font to Times Roman 12 point, medium, or the browser default setting.
High-resolution displays may have a better appearance with font size set at 14 points or higher.
Images. Set images to display.