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Robert McHenry

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Robert Dale McHenry is an editor of reference works. He was the Editor-in-Chief and Vice President of the Encyclopædia Britannica from 1992 to 1997. [1] He has edited other works, particularly biographies.

Early life

McHenry was born on April 30, 1945 in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. [2]

Education

McHenry studied at the Northwestern University, Illinois, where he gained a B.A. in 1966. [3]

Later in life, McHenry undertook further study at the Northwestern University, where he gained an M.B.A. in 1987. He studied further at the University of Michigan. [4]

Encyclopædia Brittanica

When McHenry became Editor-in-Chief of Encyclopædia Brittanica in 1992, the encyclopedia was a print product sold door-to-door. His appointment came at the same time as the launch of the World-Wide Web. The rapid growth of this meant that over his tenure the encyclopedia had to undergo a transition to an electronic database delivered on the Internet. [5]

McHenry has criticised some of the policies of other encyclopedias. In an unpublished article in 1996, McHenry criticised Microsoft's Encarta for its policy of having factually different versions of the same article in the various national issues of the encyclopedia. McHenry regarded this practice as "pandering to local prejudices" in order to suit local markets, instead of presenting subjects objectively. [6]

In November 2004, McHenry made several criticisms of the structure of Wikipedia and its invoking as an encyclopedia. He argued that Wikipedia could never become a reliable source of information, "tending to middling quality and subject to random fluctuations in quality". [7]

Other editorial work

Editor

Co-editor

McHenry as author

McHenry has written a book, How to Know. [8]

McHenry has had articles published in variuos periodicals since April 2005, and began writing regularly for Tech Central Station in November 2004. [9]


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References

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