By Stuart Soffer on March 23, 2012 at 12:53 pm
The news this week that that EB discontinues the print edition of the encyclopedia should not too much of a surprise. This should be seen in a larger context. I used to work in the library automation and public catalog industry. Twenty years ago, traditional libraries, our customers, feared their obsolescence due to competition from the Internet. To reference librarians it was perceived as a threat, rather than the resource it actually is. Brick and mortar libraries feared irrelevance, but have this far evolved to provide local-serving programs not otherwise available. Their real threat is funding, not the Internet.
One long term consequence of non-print encyclopedias is it's long, long term survivability. Five hundred years there may not be access to today's web content, but a print edition could survive.
Digital materials have matured to viably compete with print counterparts, as evidenced by iPads, Nooks, and Kindles. My personal experience/observation that a preference for print today I find somewhat counter-intuitive. My IP database which includes the Claim Construction Thesaurus is digital - but it's the print edition(s) of the Thesaurus available through Oxford University Press that are commercially successful.
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John V. Siskopoulos, Esq. April 13, 2012 at 8:11 am
PermalinkWhat will happen to the door to door salesmen? Another job gone in the "new" economy!
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