For any organization that aspires to take all human knowledge, organize it, summarize it, and publish it in a form that people find useful, the challenges and opportunities have never been greater than they are today. The volume of information is exploding, the world is shrinking, and digital media are changing the way we read, think, and learn.

To meet these challenges and opportunities, Britannica has done what we have always done throughout our 237-year history: sought the very best minds in the world to help us.

In the past, they had names like Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Marie Curie, Bertrand Russell, T.H. Huxley, and George Bernard Shaw, all of whom were Britannica contributors in their day.

Today they are the men and women of Britannica's Editorial Board of Advisors—the Nobel laureates and Pulitzer Prize winners, the leading scholars, writers, artists, public servants, and activists who are at the top of their fields. They meet regularly to share ideas, to debate, and to argue, in a unique collegium whose purpose is to understand today's world so that the resulting encyclopedia can be the best there is. We are proud to be associated with these exceptional people, and we are deeply grateful for their contributions, not only to our own publishing objectives but to the larger cause of promoting knowledge in the world today.

© 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.