Britannica Products Win Top Publishing Honor; School Web Site, Student Encyclopedia Grab Distinguished Achievement Award

Chicago, IL (PRWEB) June 11, 2010

Two of Encyclopaedia Britannica’s products for schools and libraries have won the Distinguished Achievement Award, a major educational publishing honor, the company announced today.

The award, given by the Association of Educational Publishers (AEP), recognizes the best products in the areas of curriculum, periodicals, professional development and technology & new media. Products are judged for “efficacy, usability, and overall educational value,” according to an association news release. Britannica products have won the award a number of times in the past.
The winning Britannica products are:

•     Britannica Online School Edition, a comprehensive Web site that gives teachers and students access to a wide range of resources, including four complete encyclopedias, journals and magazines, classroom learning materials and rich multimedia, all of it correlated with the curriculum. The product serves students at all levels from preschool through high school.
•     Britannica Student Encyclopaedia, a 16-volume set for students in grades 3-6. It covers school subjects and makes extensive use of charts, tables and fact boxes to help readers find key information quickly. Articles are clearly divided into sections to make browsing easy, and page design is colorful, open and pleasing to the eye. The set contains 2,300 articles, nearly 3,000 photos and images, and 1,200 maps and flags. It gives students what they need for homework and projects while making special efforts to introduce them to the craft of research. A revised edition of the encyclopedia was published in 2010.

The Britannica products were among a larger number named as finalists for the award earlier this spring. The winners, chosen from that group, were announced Tuesday at a gala reception during AEP’s annual conference in Washington, D.C.

“We’re thrilled,” said Michael Ross, a senior vice president at Britannica and general manager of Britannica Digital Learning, the company’s educational-technology division “To win one for our K-12 online flagship product and our popular elementary encyclopedia at the same time is very satisfying. It highlights all of our core strengths: in editorial, design, curriculum relevance, and technology.”

Both products have won other industry awards and honors. Schools or districts interested in these or any other Britannica products can call (800) 621-3900 or go to info.eb.com.

About Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. is a leader in education publishing whose products can be found in many media, from the Internet to wireless devices to books. A pioneer in electronic publishing since the early 1980s, the company markets a variety of encyclopedias and other reference works, curriculum products for schools, language-study courses and other learning products, many of which are available online at http://store.britannica.com. Britannica is active on Twitter and Facebook. The company makes its headquarters in Chicago.

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