Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc. has released its 2004 Ultimate Reference Suite on CD-ROM and DVD-ROM. The multimedia reference library has been updated with new content, and it’s compatible with Mac OS X v10.2 or higher and various flavors of Windows.
The Ultimate Reference Suite includes three encyclopedias: the 32-volume Encyclopaedia Britannica itself, the Britannica Student Encyclopedia and the Britannica Elementary Encyclopedia. The reference material includes Merriam-Webster Dictionaries and Thesauruses, an atlas, and historical timelines as well.
New to the 2004 edition are 8,000 articles culled from the Britannica Book of the Year, which covers events of note from the past decade. Also new are encyclopedia revisions made to reflect life in a post 9/11 world — an article on the September 11th attacks has been included, for example, along with entries on Al Qaeda and the Al Jazeera television network. New drugs and biomedical research topics have been added, information on global crime and punishment, and significant events in world sports, arts and popular culture have been added.
Users who buy the package also get free quarterly updates and a 90-day free subscription to Britannica’s online premium service.
Britannica’s 2004 Ultimate Reference Suite is now available from retailers or from the Britannica Web site. It carries a suggested retail price of US$69.95 and comes with a $20 mail-in rebate.
System requirements call for a G3/350MHz or faster; Mac OS X v10.2 or higher; 275MB free disk space for the DVD version, 315MB for the CD-ROM version.