The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 29

ARTS, BOOKS IDEAS Canadian Encyclopedia gets it right the second time around on CD-ROM The Canadian Encyclopedia Plus McClelland Stewart; $99.95 For that matter, should CD-ROMs be reviewed on Books pages? Without a doubt, CD-ROMs can excel in the retrieval of specific information and that" what makes the Canadian Encyclopedia Plus so valuable. The search capacity allows the user to type in search terms without having to guess how an article would be listed in an index. The impact of the written word is reinforced by the addition of video, sound and pictures. If you're interested in anything Canadian, and have a computer with a CD-ROM player, this is one of the most worthwhile discs you'll ever buy until the next technology comes along. Lisa Tuominen is a Citizen special projects librarian and graphics.

Text and illustrations can be easily saved or printed out While it's listed at $99, I've seen the Canadian Encyclopedia Plus advertised for under $70, making it quite accessible to the CD-ROM-owning masses. The fact the disc will play on either Macintosh or PC machines also probably keeps the cost down. With this "sell lots of them and sell them cheaper" philosophy combined with the high quality the Canadian Encyclopedia Plus deserves to be a Canadian bestseller. There's a school of thought that says the CD-ROM is the eight-track of the computer age, a transition technology, and that all the information we need will soon be available on demand on the Internet As with books, some information held on CD-ROMs is outdated as soon as it's published. Transition stage or not, the vast majority of home computers sold now come with CD-ROM players.

Their recent abundance raises some complicated issues: What are we dealing with here education? What does CD-ROM, with its multimedia (soundvisuals), do to our I thought processes? Can students learn to follow an idea when they're bombarded by links to other information? Is this a replacement for books and reading for pleasure? (I think not). Should bookstores sell CD-ROMS? How should libraries budget for them? Reviewed by Liisa Tuominen What a difference a couple of years can make. The first incarnation of the Canadian Encyclopedia on CD-ROM, released way back in 1993, was expensive a bit clunky to use, not much updated from the print version, and had (count 'em) two video clips. With the release of the new Canadian Encyclopedia Plus, McClelland and Stewart can stand tall in the knowledge that this multimedia encyclopedia is as good as any on the market today Canadian or otherwise. I don't know of a more comprehensive, more accessible source of Canadian information.

Along with a large amount of recently updated Canadian content, the Canadian Encyclopedia Plus also features the Columbia Encyclopedia (for non-Canadian topics) the Gage Canadian Dictionary, slick (in the nice sense of the word) user screens and great searching ability. There are more than 75 video clips of Canadian events, politicians, entertainers and artists. Audio clips range from wildlife sounds to readings by famous Canadian authors. Illustrations abound in the form of photos, maps -as of Ciristmas gWioj 21 ST YEAR 88 LMSDOTCVE PARI! A 225 Canadian Craftspeople induding 45 first time Artisans to the Ottawa Christmas Craft Sale A New "one-of-a-kind" gift ideas A Weekend sleigh rides A Yuletide Performers A 2000 FREE parking spaces MEW SECOND-HALF ARTISANS ARRIVE DEC. 12TH! Readers will find Going Home a literary trip well worth taking OTTAWA CHRISTMAS CRAFT SALE Going Home Selected by Don Bailey and Daile Unruh Oberon Press; 115 pages; $27.95, $13.95 paperback Thurs.

Dec. 7 Sun. Dec. 17 (CLOSED MONDAY, DEC. 11) Sat.

10 a.m. 6 p.m. Weekdays: Noon -10 p.m. Adults: 05.00 Seniors Youth (13-17): 84.50 Multi-day Pass: 06.50 Children 12 under, FREE (613)241-5777 -4 place where he lives to map the country at one-to-one. Perhaps only fiction allows us to do that." Donna Caruso, in "The Fig Tree" goes to Italy for her evocation of a place of the heart.

Both Helen Pereira, in "The Road to the Sky," and Gertrude Story, in "Wanted," look homeward to Canada from abroad. Pereira's "Betsy" longs in Brazil for Kettle Valley, B.C. Story's feisty "Rose" can't wait to get back from New Mexico to North Battle-ford. This tough, attractive, middle-aged spinster finds that there are more than "three essentials" to find out about a man before planning a vacation around him. The book closes with David Helwig's "Something for Olivia's Scrapbook I Guess." It is the only urban tale, set in the society of the Yorkville fringe.

With Laurence and Helwig as the bookends, both lefthanded and righthanded browsers will be encouraged to peruse the page headers further. They will not be disappointed. E. Russell Smith is an Ottawa writer, whose most recent book is The Felicity Papers (General Store) A 5 -TV-" J1 I 1 9 i JK IA 'r: 5 V'v Vrt; A-. -4 21 SI YEAR REDEEM THIS COUPON FOROYEADMSSIOA1 AT0XEY $3.50 at LAASD0WXE PARK xrtPSl) r.

tint Reviewed by E. Russell Smith Northrop Frye once passed on a story of an Inuit guide coping with a panicky companion, faced with making a bivouac in a blizzard. "We are not lost," he said thoughtfully. "We are here." Such confidence in one's sense of place needs reinforcement in a society that often requires us to travel far from our roots. The so-called global village is still too big.

Margaret Laurence, herself widely travelled, understood this. She wrote her masterwork, The Diviners, in her cottage near Peterborough. She understandably thought of "The Shack," the subject of her essay which opens Going Home, as what editor Don Bailey refers calls a "nurturing place." "We urge you to linger in these places of your heart," writes co-editor Daile Unruh. In fact it is only in the heart that these places exist, artifacts of the memory and the imagination. This collection of nine essays and stories begins in the Ontario cottage country with Margaret Laurence and Charles Wilkins.

The latter, in "Where All Muskoka Dances," gives us a selective glimpse of uncritical childhood. His article illustrates his thesis that "if you peered into the future you could see fierce nostalgia." Three stories take us to the West. Helen Mulligan's "The Dollhouse" deals with a father's release from a sense of his own failure. Larry Krotz finds a moment of being in Saskatchewan; "Cheatin' Hearts and Hurtin' Songs" is set in a Yorkton bar. Ivan Dorin, in "Outside Edges," extends the concept of "home" to the whole of Canada, through the metaphorical fantasy of skating across the country Aritha van Herk has noted the desire of the boy in this story "to read the Thurs.

Dec. 7 Sun-j 10a.m.-6p.m. Snin. Dec. 17 Weekdays: (closed Mon.

Dec. 11) Noon -10 p.m. Not to be used In conjunction with any other offer discount OTTAWA CHRISTMAS CRAFT SALE 241-5777 Teddy Bear Patricia Watson LOTTERY CALENDAR FOR CPR Date Number Name Dec.1 7 401 4 $1 00 Astrel Maceus 1996 Calendar available at 233-1900 Mi1 wm in the Iflf I Citizen and you could see Mm at the ralladium! CANADA LOST. "The Canadian agreement is a political one'said U. S.

free trade negotiator Peter Murphy. "No matter what measures Mulroney might take they would never be enough to reassure Washington that another Pierre Elliott Trudeau would not come along and try to re-Canadianize the country. "It wasn't that Mulroney aggressively needed prodding. It was a future prime minister we were worried about." READ Marci McDonald's mi e're running a picture of Bryan Adams in the Citizen every weekday Jan. 8.

Find him and you could win: Two VIP tickets to his concert at the Palladium Jan. 15 A Fender guitar 4' A t. A Bryan Adams CD collection A variety of tour merchandise Plus we'll get you to the show in your own limousine! Provided by ALLANTE ID 4 itv LIMOUSINE a Watch Midday Newsline on CJOH-TV Mm and Bob on the couch on CHRO-TV for daily clues; then check the Citizen every weekday. When you find Bryan Adams' picture, phone TOUCHUNE 721-1990 and enter CODE 1234. Leave your name, daytime phone number and the lection and page number where the picture appeared.

We'll select a random winner every day who will receive a Bryan Adams CO or tour merchandise. On January 9, all of our daily winners will be entered into the draw for the grand prize. Entries must be received on the Touchline system by 5:00 p.m. on the day the picture is published. Complete rules on TOUCHUNE 721-1990 CODE RULE (7853) Signed by MALAE Books Canada 71 Sparks Street 236-0629 open weeknights until 9 p.m.

I 1 1 THE OTTAWA Citizen I 73M7700 Cs CJOH-TV CI IRC) TV 4- BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE All winners will be contacted fW.