Encyclopedia

Encyclopedias are the end-product of the urge to collect, catalogue, describe, and classify masses of information at its most granular and list-like. Historically, encyclopedias have often taken the form of large books. But whether the encyclopedia is a physical book or a digital tool, its goal remains the same: to use language to make information easy to find and understand through alphabetical or thematic organization, and to present this information as universal and separate from any particular historical, geographical, or temporal context.