After 244 years, Encyclopaedia Britannica stops the Presses

Dear All,

After 244 years, Encyclopaedia Britannica stops the Presses:- Mint 15 March 2012

Those coolly authoritative, gold-lettered reference books that were once sold door to door by a fleet of travelling salesmen and displayed as proud fixtures in US homes will be discontinued, company executives said.

In an acknowledgment of the realities of the digital age— and of competition from the website Wikipedia—Encyclopaedia Britannica will focus primarily on its online encyclopedias and educational curriculum for schools. The last print version is the 32-volume 2010 edition, which weighs 129 pounds and includes new entries on global warming and the Human Genome Project.

“It’s a rite of passage in this new era,” said Jorge Cauz, the president of Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc. “Some people will feel sad about it and nostalgic about it. But we have a better tool now. The website is continuously updated.”

In the 1950s, having the Encyclopaedia Britannica on the bookshelf was akin to a station wagon in the garage or a black-and-white Zenith in the den, a possession coveted for its usefulness and as a goalpost for an aspirational middle class.

But in recent years, print reference books have been almost completely overtaken by the Internet and its vast spread of resources, including specialized websites and the hugely popular—and free—online encyclopedia Wikipedia.

Wikipedia meets the 21st-century mandate of providing instantly updated material. And it has nearly 4 million articles in English, including some on pop culture topics that would not be considered worthy of a mention in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Cauz said that he believed Britannica’s competitive advantage with Wikipedia came from its prestigious sources, its carefully edited entries and the trust that was tied to the brand.

But one widely publicized study, published in 2005 by Nature, called into question Britannica’s presumed accuracy advantage over Wikipedia. The study said that out of 42 competing entries, Wikipedia made an average of four errors in each article, and Britannica three. Britannica responded with a lengthy rebuttal saying the study was error-laden and “completely without merit”.

“We have very different value propositions,” Cauz said. “Britannica is going to be smaller. We cannot deal with every single cartoon character; we cannot deal with every love life of every celebrity. But we need to have an alternative where facts really matter. Britannica won’t be able to be as large, but it will always be factually correct.”

©2012/the new york times

Thank You

Giridhar Kunkur
Librarian