Comparative Study on the Joint Biographical Entries within the Iranian Encyclopedia for Young People and Similar printed English Language Encyclopedias

The objective of present study is comparative study of children’s encyclopedias Published in Iran, according to the research variables (entries number, structure, writing, reputation, up-to-dateness, and biography types) for determination of their strengths and deficiencies.
This is an applied research in which the comparative and content analysis methods were used. The research population includes three encyclopedias for children and young adults published in Iran, besides World Book encyclopedia and Children’s Britannica encyclopedia that used for comparison. The research population was consisted of 432 joint biographical entries appeared in the each of five encyclopedias. 67 entries per encyclopedia (totally 201entries) were selected as research sample.
Findings: The research findings showed that the Iranian encyclopedia for young people was the best in comparison to others on the basis of measures such as quantity of evaluation criteria (entry number, structure, writing, reputation, up-to-datedness, biography types) presence, and criteria quality. Findings on the biography types showed that all three encyclopedias had selective biographical entries while neglecting the universality led them to retrospective entries with old information.
Originality/Value: The research seems valuable because of its detail comparison of encyclopedias on the basis of selective measures. Also, it shows that all of the Iranian encyclopedias are not up-to-date and consisted of retrospective entries.