New trends in the encyclopedic practice shaped by the digital age (based on Scholarpedia and Scholarly Community Еncyclopedia)

Abstract

The article describes the changes in the sphere of encyclopedia publishing (online encyclopedic practice) on the example of some notable Internet resources (Scholarpedia and Scholarly Community Encyclopedia) caused by the development of digital technologies. With the appearance of electronic encyclopedias in the late 20th century, the encyclopedic activity has innovated with the multimedia content and the speed of its search. However, today digital encyclopedic practice is moving from formal to qualitative changes associated with the improvement of encyclopedic content and its building. In particular, the model of creating the analyzed in this article the Scholarpedia and the Scholarly Community Encyclopedia shows new approaches to the organization of encyclopedic practice that are different from the traditional ones. It expands the opportunities for improving the quality of encyclopedias as well as reaching them to a new level.