Published by ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, California. The publisher describes EXEGY as "an easy-to-use electronic encyclopedia of current world information, including current issues, world geography, government, history, biographies, documents, sports, and more." Recommended for grades 6-12. $650/year for standalone; $975/year for networked version. Six updated discs per year are provided. Windows.
The EXEGY disc reviewed is a preview disc and may not be as complete as those provided for yearly subscriptions, although the publisher makes no statement to that effect in documentation provided. Events on this disc are current through April 1994.
EXEGY contains facts and figures on all countries, states and territories of the United States, and Canadian provinces. Short summaries of important events from the past three years are provided. There are over 550 biographies of government officials, political leaders, cultural figures, and sports personalities as well as more than 450 organizational profiles. Of particular note on this disc is the lack of short biographies on several sports figures such as Bonnie Blair and Dan Jansen who performed exceptionally well at the Lillehammer Winter Olympics.
Illustrations include people, events, and places. Rudimentary maps are provided for countries, major regions, and continents so that students can place people and events in context with location. Summaries and excerpts of important documents such as constitutions, UN resolutions, treaties, legislation, and speeches, are also included.
EXEGY provides excellent background material to current world events. A history of the metric system with a chart for converting units of measurements is included. Also, current economic problems necessitate an understanding of the currency exchange rate mechanism and an explanation of exchange rate conversion is provided. Unfortunately, it is complicated by using the term "unit of conversion" and fails to explain the equation in relation to national currencies.
The events section lists news summaries as they occurred with the most recent event first. The facts and figures section provides current information about countries and states. However, sources of data are not specifically given but listed generally in the 'Sources' section under 'Menu'. Compilation dates are sometimes provided in parentheses. Students must rely on the reputation of ABC-CLIO to provide the most current data available. [Top of Page]
Boolean search operators AND, OR, NOT, and NEAR can be used to define complex search criteria when using the Search button. Searches can be done in all topics, selected topics, or in the current topic.
Hyperlinks and hotspots provide jumps to related material. Hyperlinks are coded in green and underlined. Clicking on a hyperlink takes you to a topic--biography, photo, profile, or document--related to the link. Hotspots are words in blue with a dotted underline. Hotspots located in an article link to a definition in the glossary. Map hotspots are names of countries or continents on individual maps. Clicking on a country in a continental map provides a map of that country; clicking on a continent jumps to a map of the world. [Top of Page]
Text can be exported to the clipboard or to Microsoft Write for editing and inclusion in a paper. However, sections of text cannot be marked for export to a word processor or to the printer. Examples of proper citations for EXEGY are given under Menu/Sources/How to Cite. Photographic illustrations cannot be exported or printed. Maps can be printed and copied to the clipboard. [Top of Page]
The recommended configuration, Level II MPC, is an IBM- compatible computer with: 80486SX 25MHz processor, 4MB RAM, 160MB hard disk, SVGA video display 640x480, 256 colors, MPC- compatible CD-ROM drive, and Microsoft-compatible mouse.
Required software includes: MS-DOS version 3.30 or later, Microsoft Windows version 3.1 or later, and Microsoft CD-ROM extensions (MSCDEX) version 2.2 or later. [Top of Page]
"Information is succinct and readable, as well as timely."