Encyclopedia of Arkansas vs Wikipedia

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.

Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia available on the web and through mobile apps, with editions in hundreds of languages, including editions with over one million articles. Volunteer editors create and revise content, check facts, cite sources, discuss entries, and moderate the encyclopedia. The Wikimedia Foundation hosts and protects Wikipedia, while editorial decisions are made by volunteers. The Foundation says the service is available without advertising or paywalls and is funded mainly by donations, not advertising, subscriptions, or sales of users’ personal data. The official Android app supports searching articles, changing languages, saving reading lists for offline use, and adjusting themes and text size. Its listing says the app has no ads, does not track or collect data, and encrypts data in transit. MediaWiki provides a REST API for interacting with installations including Wikipedia. The Foundation publishes a privacy policy, says it prioritizes speed, reliability, and availability during traffic spikes, and publishes transparency reports twice a year. Its financial statements are independently audited annually. Wikipedia is free at free.