It seems oddly quaint to install a computer-based encyclopaedia from a couple of CD-Roms. Of course, it would feel equally old-fashioned to do so from a single DVD-Rom disc instead because Encyclopaedia Britannica Standard Edition, along with every other disc-based encyclopaedia, faces the problem that previously plagued the printed variety.

Any encyclopaedia must compete with the internet as a wider reference and research tool - and that is no lightweight challenge. Indeed, Encyclopaedia Britannica itself has long since had an online edition, and for anyone with internet access, this would always be a better reference tool than a CD-Rom edition whose contents are in effect forever frozen in time.

All of which begs the question of whether Encyclopaedia Britannica Standard Edition on CD-Rom is worth buying. Well, as it happens, using this package is really rather enjoyable.

While the internet is indeed the closest the world has yet come to the font of all knowledge, there is something reassuring about having lots of useful research materials gathered together in one place and under the stewardship of one (trusted) publisher. Besides, many articles here hook up to the online edition of Britannica.

Encyclopaedia Britannica Standard Edition also tries hard to be a proper reference tool, which is something the raw internet could never claim to be. The information on the Britannica CD-Rom is sensibly categorised and comprehensively indexed. It would be a useful companion for students, with sections on how to write research papers, along with a dictionary, thesaurus and world atlas.