Discusses the difficult and painstaking process of researching the lives of the writers of girls' school stories for "The Encyclopaedia of School Stories," published in the summer 2000. Notes that frequently, very little was known about the authors, and often existing information was inaccurate. Offers details of the encyclopaedia and…

Describes three encyclopedias available on CD-ROM: (1) Grolier's Electronic Encyclopedia; (2) World Book's Information Finder; and (3) Compton's Multimedia Encyclopedia. Ideas for how they might be used in the classroom are suggested, information retrieval versus motivation is discussed, learning processes are examined, and stand-alone versus…

Discusses the use of encyclopedias by students and considers the role of the library media specialist in teaching appropriate encyclopedia use. Topics addressed include problems with plagiarism; the need to improve assignments; the information seeking process; becoming critical users of information; and the quality of information sources. (three…

Discusses reasons why K-12 school libraries should purchase multimedia CD-ROMs and reviews 4 interactive CD-ROM encyclopedias based on interface, search capabilities, printing and presentation, product support, and overall educational value. Provides example computer screens and a comparison of the reviewed CD-ROMs. (Author/JMV)