Almost all Encyclopedias are available in the Internet in the meantime. Short information is occasionally still free of charge, detailed information is not. Here are some of the most important:

In German language

• The Bibliographische Institut & F. A. Brockhaus AG publishes the famous "Brockhaus Enzyklopädie". The basic edition (latest from the year 1999) contains 24 volumes (260,000 keywords on 17,000 pages). Meanwhile there are a number of supplements available. (#1). For the registered owner of the encyclopedia a further editorial service is free.
  One can investigate and receive short information freely so for with a search string .
  The knowledge portal Xipolis.net offers a keyword search into over 50 well-known dictionaries, Encyclopedias and dictionaries. There you get some basic information for free.
  
  
• Die deutsche Bibliothek is the national bibliographical centre of the Federal Republic of Germany and fulfils the function of a national library. It offers a variety of online services around the use of dictionaries.
  
  
• getabstract.com offers summaries (8 pages) of more than 2,500 works in the field of economy, trend research, finances, management and personality development. They are immediately available by e-mail and printable as a PDF file or in other formats. The summaries ("Abstracts") and also 'Mini-Abos' cost € 9.80.
  
  
• German SPECIAL: Encyklopedia of language of the youth, in alphabetical order. Or 900 sayings of the Poesiealbum
  
  
• Special information
  • Fischers Weltalmanach offers country information, news and biographies.
  • The Projekt Gutenberg-DE is an digital online library with texts in German language of more than 200 classical books.

In English language

• The most renowned English speaking reference book is the Encyclopedia Britannica. A convenient online research is available at a price of $ 5.00/month.
• Also Microsoft offers an extensive service with its Encarta Encyclopedia. The cost of detailed information is $ 4.95/month.
• The biggest one-volume English dictionary is the Columbia Encyclopedia.
  You can examine all of the over 51,000 entries online in full text.
  The service Infoplease.com also makes the same information base available.
  In addition it searches also in dictionaries and historical documents.
• There is a good collection of single Encyclopedias at /edis.win.tue.nl/encyclop.html
• Furthermore there are two interesting services offering a very large information volume:
  • The WWW Virtual Library, described as: "VL is the oldest catalogue of the web. Unlike commercial catalogues, it is run by a loose confederation of volunteers, who compile pages of key links for particular areas in which they are expert; even though it isn't the biggest index of the web, the VL pages are widely recognized as being amongst the highest-quality guides to particular sections of the web".
  • Detailed and often updated country information is offered by the US government : The CIA World Factbook

#1 Brockhaus Enzyklopädie Volume 1-24, 20., latest Edition 1996 to 1999 brockhaus.de This 20th edition, ISBN: 3-7653-3100-7, costs about € 3.000 and it is recommandable to order it directly at Brockhaus. Amazon did not offer this edition entirely (only volume by volume). Only the 19th edition is entirely available: order now at amazon.com	#2 Der Brockhaus 3 volumes with CD-ROM brockhaus.de 1 book + CD-ROM order now at amazon.com	#3 Der Brockhaus in one volume brockhaus.de 1 book order now at amazon.com
further encyclopedias as a book:

Electronical Encyclopedias

Brockhaus - Die Enzyklopädie Digital brockhaus.de CD-ROM order now at amazon.com	Brockhaus - Die Enzyklopädie, Medienpaket (DVD-ROM) brockhaus.de CD-ROM order now at amazon.com	Brockhaus multimedial 2004 premium brockhaus.de CD-ROM order now at amazon.com
further encyclopedias as software on CD:

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