ENCYCLOPAEDIAS ON THE WEB: Wandering through the various encyclopaedias available on the internet has the same feel as picking up a printed volume, writes Anne Byrne

In August 1937, H G Wells made a contribution to the new Enclyopédie Francaise, suggesting that a world brain, a permanent world encyclopaedia, was possible. Micro-photography would be the key technology for storing the information.

He wrote: "The encyclopaedias of the past have sufficed for the needs of a cultivated minority. They were written 'for gentlemen by gentlemen' in a world wherein universal education was unthought of... Many people are now coming to recognise that our contemporary encyclopaedias are still in the coach-and-horses phase of development, rather than in the phase of the automobile and the aeroplane."

Wells's idea was for a world synthesis of bibliography and documentation with the indexed archives of the world. A great number of workers would be engaged perpetually in perfecting this index of human knowledge and keeping up to date, he acknowledged. "Concurrently, the resources of micro-photography, as yet only in their infancy, will be creating a concentrated visual record."

He concludes with an incredible leap of faith, suggesting that a common ideology based on a permanent world encyclopaedia is "a possible means, to some it seems the only means, of dissolving human conflict into unity." The full essay can be read online at http://art-bin.com/art/ obrain.html.

Sixty five years later, the internet (a technology that would have appealed immensely to Wells) would seem the ideal place to accommodate such a "world brain". Of course, no such resource exists, on or offline, and the internet has facilitated greater diversity of opinion rather than uniformity, anarchy rather than unity.

So, what is online when it comes to encyclopaedias in the prosaic sense we all understand (paragraphs or pages of definitions and illustrations)? The old staples such as Encyclopaedia Britannica (www.britannica.com) and World Book (www.worldbook.com) do have a web presence, but you have to pay a subscription. The advantage of online or CD ROM versions is the potential for multi-media with video clips taking the place of still photographs.

Trawling through some non-fee-paying sites, two Transition Year students were impressed with Encarta (www.encarta.msn.com). Ciara Costello, of Holy Faith Convent, Clontarf, Dublin, says the website "gives a concise definition of what an encyclopaedia is, and its importance for researching a topic... encyclopaedias were first compiled in the fourth century BC by a Greek philosopher."

Daniel Roantree, of the High School, Rathgar, Dublin, says Encarta has "an absolutely huge range of information about the broad world of music. There's an introduction that defines music as an artful arrangement of sounds across time and states. Some philosophers argue that music should be defined as a kind of mental image and that the physical aspects of sound are merely byproducts of this image... If you're already excited (which you should be!) go and look at the site."

For EL, the real excitement of the search for encyclopaedias online was in looking for encyclopaedias with a theme, rather than the generic staples.

For instance, "the Panic Encyclopaedia: the definitive guide to the postmodern scene" was irresistible (www.freedonia. com/panic). It includes topics such as the panic alphabet, panic art, panic architecture, panic beaches, panic commies, panic feminism, panic Florida sunstrokes, panic martians, and panic Nietzsche's cat (on panic particle physics).

Why panic? "Panic is the key psychological mood of postmodern culture. In pharmaceuticals, a leading drug company, eager to get the jump on supplying sedatives for the panic population at the end of the millennium announced plans for a 'world panic project," according to this website.

Leaving panic for a slightly more soothing topic, www.musicweb.uk.net/ encyclopaedia/ has nearly 4,000 entries, mostly performers, but also includes some songwriters, producers and record labels.

There's six dense pages on the British pop group that formed in Liverpool in 1959. With haircuts that were not English "pudding-basin", but modelled after hairstyles worn by upper-class German schoolboys, they left a deep imprint on the 1960s. This encyclopaedia, edited by Donald Clarke, also included entries on the individual members of the Beatles.

With a focus even closer to home, there's an intriguing encyclopaedia (www.geocities.com/Athens/ 8308/encyclopaedia.html) relating to Ireland. Try this: "IRA, the. A guerrilla, or terrorist organisation without an accepted name in Irish, having no ties whatsoever with the Irish language, except the fact that some IRA members are Irish-speakers by conviction (pun not originally intended)." Or: "Conradh na Gaeilge, the Gaelic League, established by Douglas Hyde in 1893. The organisation lives on, publishing a monthly called Feasta (Henceforth); however, it would indeed be faulty to assume that all Irish-language activities are dependent on it."

Wandering through the various encyclopaedias on the internet has the same feel as picking up a printed volume of an encyclopaedia. You set out to find out about particle physics and instead find yourself reading about pachyderms. Fun, confusing, and arguably educational.

Of course, the information in printed encyclopaedias or their online counterparts is only as reliable as its author and fact checker(s). So, don't believe all you read.