Encyclopedia.com vs Encyclopedia of Alabama

Encyclopedia.com is a free web reference service with over 300,000 entries from published sources including Oxford University Press and the Columbia Encyclopedia. It also offers more than 50,000 topic summaries with related pictures, videos, and newspaper and magazine articles. The site says it continually updates partner content and allows searches across more than 200 encyclopedias and reference books. Users can search with keywords or browse alphabetically. Results are ordered by relevance according to how often a search term appears in an article. The FAQ gives citation details for The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, including its 2008 publication information. The service is available on the web, and its privacy policy also refers to a mobile application named “Encyclopedia.” Terms allow personal searching, display, downloading, and printing, but prohibit systematic downloading or scraping without permission. The privacy policy describes collection of account, device, browsing, cookie, and session information, as well as an advertising affiliation with CMI Marketing, doing business as CafeMedia.

Encyclopedia of Alabama is a free web reference resource covering the state’s history, culture, geography, and natural environment. Its articles range from people, events, sports, art, literature, industry, and government to plants, animals, agriculture, and recreation. Contributors—including academic scholars and field scientists—write or adapt material for the Encyclopedia, and the site says it adds content regularly. Articles may include multimedia, while themed collections bring related entries together and image galleries link visual material to related articles. Readers can search or browse by categories, articles, authors, events, organizations, people, places, collections, galleries, and quick facts. Citation tools and educator resources are available. Noncommercial educational reuse is permitted with appropriate citation and credit; commercial reproduction requires prior permission. The editorial office is administered by Auburn University through its Office of University Outreach in partnership with University Libraries. The site accepts correction suggestions that identify an error and provide at least one supporting reference.