Case Study—Research Portal Web Site and the Online Feature Story: Britannica.com and the Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance feature story was created for Britannica.com, a web site created by Encyclopaedia Britannica, the company that has been known for their book encyclopedias for generations. Britannica.com is currently called Encyclopaedia Britannica Online so we will use that name unless we are talking about the past when the Britannica.com name was still in use. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online presents a synthesis of recommended links to other web sites, articles from Encyclopaedia Britannica's own massive database, and new material, such as a news digest and multimedia features called spotlights. The spotlights are special sections of the Encyclopaedia Britannica Online site that focus on a specific topic, such as women's history, D-Day, or black history. The purpose of these spotlights is to engage the user by presenting information in a highly visual and interactive manner, as opposed to the more text and still picture based encyclopedia articles. There is a link to a featured spotlight and spotlight archives on the Encyclopaedia Britannica Online home page (Figure 12-1).