Encyclopaedia Britannica ends its print run

The end of serendipity, as we know it.

Leafing through the world's knowledge, alphabetically, will become am obsolete tradition. The oldest English-language general encyclopedia -- according to, of course, the Encyclopædia Britannica -- will abandon foolscap once and for all.

"For 244 years, the thick volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica have stood on the shelves of homes, libraries, and businesses everywhere, a source of enlightenment as well as comfort to their owners and users around the world," reports its blog. "Today we've announced that we will discontinue the 32-volume printed edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica when our current inventory is gone." That inventory includes 4,000 in its warehouse -- about 8,000 sets have been sold at $1,395 a pop. (Seven million sets have been published in its storied history.)

Sad to see some of the negative effects of technology.

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bahodeme

Closed Account
My family had these and World Book growing up. This was easier than rushing to the library to complete a report for school before closing time. I guess it was bound to happen.
 

alexpnz

Lord Dipstick
More proof that the Internet will be the end of the world.
 
You can get Britannica on iPad now. Much quicker updates ;) We also have Wikipedia. :)
 
It's sad what technology has done to the world, I used to have lots of encyclopedias and non-fiction books when growing up and would read them all from cover to cover, now I, like many others just glance at wikipedia when I want to look something up, I guess we have to as life moves so fast and is so much more stressful nowadays. I've been reminiscing a lot about the old days (especially 80s) and you had magazines and sticker albums to collect and the local store(s) you could easily walk to had a wide variety of interesting products to sell and you could get anything you wanted with great customer service, now everyone just drives to the local supermarket/mega store just because things are a few pence cheaper. Here in London all these local independant shops as well as pubs are disappearing fast to be replaced with either restaurants or flats which cram more people in to already crowded areas that simply don't have the transport facilities and hospitals/doctors to cope. Man how things suck right now and the younger generation seem content to live off of their iPhone and have no idea what we've lost as a society. One of the last few video game retailers left GAME is about to go bust here in the UK because they can't compete with online prices, again I'm also one of those ones who shop online for cheaper prices but it's sad to seen them disappear from the Hight Street in a similar way to Woolworths, Index, Dixons and Zaavi did here in the UK making it even more of a faceless society. :2 cents:
 

What a run: Encyclopedia Britannica is the longest-running manufacturer of printed encyclopedias, with its first edition printed in Scotland in 1768

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...t-print-edition--244-YEARS.html#ixzz1p72qjjVJ


WHEN BRITANNICA RULED: A HISTORY OF THE ENCYCLOPEDIA


A rare first edition of Encyclopedia Britannica, from 1768

Mid-1700s: Edinburgh was a cradle of learning - home to novelist Sir Walter Scott, poet Robert Burns and diarist James Boswell.

To chronicle this age of Scottish enlightenment, printer Colin Macfarquhar and engraver Andrew Bell decided to publish a reference work, bringing on board 28-year-old scholar William Smellie to act as editor.

Their volumes would be sorted alphabetically and 'compiled upon a new plan in which the different Sciences and Arts are digested into distinct Treatises or Systems' - and its hallmark would be, in the words of its editor, 'utility'.

Britannica's first edition was published in 'fascicles' - one section at a time - over three years, from 1768.

It was finished three years later and sold out.

Building on this success, another edition - this time in ten volumes - was brought out between 1777 and 1784.

1790: It did not take long for news of the encyclopedia to reach America. A pirated version was printed in Philadelphia by Thomas Dobson. Dropping the name Britannica, parts were rewritten to serve its US audience - and other tweaks included omitting the dedication to King George III.

1797: A third edition of 18 volumes was produced. For the first time, articles from outside contributors were also featured. A fourth edition in 1809 contained 20 volumes.


Eminent 19th century scholars continued to add their contributions - with fascinating treatises on subjects such as the Rosetta Stone and Egyptian hieroglyphics.

1875-89: The ninth edition - known as the 'scholar's edition' - was published.It outlined many scientific discoveries: a study of Darwin's theory of evolution; a critique on biblical literature; and other topics of discussion included John Keats, anarchism and taboo.


1910-11: An 11th edition was published in association with Cambridge University. By this point, two Americans had taken over ownership of Britannica - Horace Hooper and Walter Jackson.

Contributors to the 12th (1921-22) and 13th (1926) editions included such luminaries as Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Leon Trotsky and Harry Houdini.

1929: The company had almost completely shifted its operation to the States - and a permanent editorial team was established in Chicago. Under the leadership of William Benton, who later became a senator, the company expanded by purchasing Compton’s Encyclopedia, the dictionary publisher G. & C. Merriam (later Merriam-Webster, Inc.) and others.

1981: The first digital version of the the encyclopedia was produced - and also made the first multimedia CD-ROM encyclopedia, Compton's MultiMedia Encyclopedia, in 1989.

By the 1990s, Britannica had produced or was at work on encyclopedias and other educational materials in Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Italy, France, Spain, Latin America, Turkey, Hungary, Poland, and elsewhere.

1994: The company developed Britannica Online, the first encyclopedia for the Internet, making the entire text available worldwide. That year, the first version of the Britannica on CD-ROM was also published.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...t-print-edition--244-YEARS.html#ixzz1p73HkbNj
 
Sad to see some of the negative effects of technology.

Story

See, I don't see this as entirely negative. The same information will be available, but in a much more efficient medium. It's more searchable, takes less space, takes fewer resources to produce, and is less expensive to buy.

Books will never disappear completely, those who want to pick up a paper novel will have them available.
 
See, I don't see this as entirely negative. The same information will be available, but in a much more efficient medium. It's more searchable, takes less space, takes fewer resources to produce, and is less expensive to buy.

Yes, but you have to admit that there's a certain quality,a certain charm, if you will, about flipping through the pages of a book that you just can't get from clicking a mouse button. It's the smell of the pages, the frustration of not finding the entry you're looking for, the amazement of all the entries that you stall on because they're too fascinating to pass unread, all that makes a printed book irreplaceable.
 
Yes, but you have to admit that there's a certain quality,a certain charm, if you will, about flipping through the pages of a book that you just can't get from clicking a mouse button. It's the smell of the pages, the frustration of not finding the entry you're looking for, the amazement of all the entries that you stall on because they're too fascinating to pass unread, all that makes a printed book irreplaceable.

Certainly, that's true. Fair point.
 

Will E Worm

Conspiracy...
Sad to see some of the negative effects of technology.

Sure is. Going 100% digital is not a good idea.

You can get Britannica on iPad now. Much quicker updates ;) We also have Wikipedia. :)

Wikipedia? You mean the open source site that anyone can change? Also, many lies on Wikipedia.

Information in print is irreplaceable. Unless you would like society to move into the world of Idiocracy?
 
I actually have an old set of Compton's Encyclopedias in my office. Once in a while I page through it and remember using this set when I was a child.
I also have a Saturn. I don't think I'll be keeping it as long, but I guess it is kind of the same thing in many ways.
 
Wikipedia? You mean the open source site that anyone can change? Also, many lies on Wikipedia.

Information in print is irreplaceable. Unless you would like society to move into the world of Idiocracy?

sadly i think it's going to end up that way unless some cataclysmic decimation of the world population occurs first...
 

bahodeme

Closed Account
You can get Britannica on iPad now. Much quicker updates ;) We also have Wikipedia. :)
I wonder if this is part of the reason education is not regarded that highly now. Because it is so accessible. It helps those who cannot afford $1,000+ for a set of books when there is food, gas, rent/mortage, etc. But there is no "work" involved as in knowing how what you are looking for is spelled, etc. Now it's a matter of typing close to what you are looking for and saying "yeah that's it".
 

LukeEl

I am a failure to the Korean side of my family
Watch in another 50 years people will be able to ingest some kind of pill hopefully in gummi or chewy form to absorb knowledge from books.
 
Watch in another 50 years people will be able to ingest some kind of pill hopefully in gummi or chewy form to absorb knowledge from books.

You mean like this:
Pretty cool i'd say ;)
 
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