Encyclopedia.com vs Encyclopedia of Arkansas

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 Arkansas is a free web reference about Arkansas history and culture, with material for historians, teachers, students, and other readers. As of January 2026, it offered more than 8,200 entries and nearly 18,000 pieces of media. Readers can browse entries and media alphabetically, by category, county, or time period, and use County Explorer to explore Arkansas counties. A history calendar presents events associated with particular dates.

Alongside text entries and media galleries, the site provides lesson plans, student activities, quizzes, and history programs. It has an En Español section and continues to add photographs, maps, videos, quizzes, and lesson plans. Entries are reviewed and fact checked, with volunteer reviewers involved; public comments are moderated but are not fact-checked. Some sensitive images are blurred and carry content warnings. The project also invites people to suggest topics or media, write or review entries, and volunteer.