Online Catholic Encyclopedia Completed

6/26/2000 - 12:00 AM PST

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Online Catholic Encyclopedia Completed -- 123-million byte effort is the result of more than 400 volunteer transcribers Denver, CO--Launched more than five years ago, the online Catholic Encyclopedia was completed on May 1, 2000 (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/). The Encyclopedia is the work of coordinator Kevin Knight and more than 400 volunteers who transcribed nearly 12,000 articles from a 1913-edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia. Knight chose the 1913-edition because it is no longer under copyright protection. In addition to providing information on the doctrine, organization, and history of Christianity over the centuries, it includes information about persons, institutions, and philosophies that have affected the Catholic Church from within and without. �The online Catholic Encyclopedia,� said Knight, �demonstrates the collective power of people on the web. The project allowed people to participate in a common project, allowing us to do far more than any one of us could do individually.� Like medieval monks transcribing the Bible to make it available to others, hundreds of volunteers obtained copies of the original 1913 encyclopedia, often spending as much as an hour per page transcribing the articles into the computer, and then emailing them directly to Knight. Volunteers included people such as retired medical doctor Donald Boon of New Mexico; Joseph and Mary Thomas of Montreal, Canada; retired Air Force veteran Doug Potter of Drums, Pennsylvania, and a cloistered nun from Lufkin, Texas. �There were volunteers from all 50 states, as well as many foreign countries, including Canada, France, Germany, and Brazil,� said Knight. The Catholic Encyclopedia is already receiving more than 100,000 hits per day by students, scholars, and others interested in learning more about their faith. A search feature allows browsers to look up a particular topic. The Catholic Encyclopedia has also received international attention. ACI-PRENSA, a Latin American newswire agency is undertaking to translate the entire Encyclopedia into Spanish (http://www.aciprensa.com/Enciclopedia/). In addition, Vietnamese software engineer An Dang, of Australia, created a CD-ROM version http://www.vietcatholic.net/Cd3/catholicencyclopedia.htm) that is currently being used by Vietnamese who, living under communist rule, do not have access to religious materials or the Internet. Dang coordinates a VietCatholic web site (www.vietcatholic.net). Contact: Kevin Knight, Phone: 303-420-7730 Email: knight@knight.org

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New Advent
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/ MN, US
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Keywords

Catholic Encyclopedia New Advent VietCatholic online resource Encyclopedia ACI-PRENSA

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