The newest multivolume general English-language encyclopedia (1980-), this source contains nearly 29,000 articles written by both in-house editorial staff and some 2,500 contributors drawn from the ranks of professors at prestigious U.S. universities and colleges. While contemporary in its content and perspective, the work has often been criticized for the brevity of its articles (500 words or less). In its scope and depth of coverage, the Academic American falls somewhere between the World Book Encyclopedia and the Encyclopedia Britannica. Bibliographies are appended to 40% of the articles and, by comparison with similar sources, quite current. The most heavily cross-referenced of any comparable encyclopedia, the source also contains an outstanding index volume comprised of over 200,000 entries.

DF, 3/96