Encyclopedia Britannica, one of the most used encyclopedia’s worldwide, announced last week that it will no longer be printed. It is a historical moment as the encyclopedia was printed for 244 years and became a part of global education.
I can remember spending hours in the local library using Britannica encyclopedia’s to aid with research for projects and assignments. The evolution of my own research journey was that after the library, we got a computer at home and with it came Encarta. At the time it was unbelievable that a whole encyclopedia could be placed on a CD. Thus when looking for research it was simple and convenient. I merely had to start the computer, put in the CD and bang I could get my research without leaving home. Thereafter the CD was replaced with Internet access and suddenly I had the ability to search millions of documents and get the results instantly. The point I am trying to make is that as time has passed (in my case we are talking about 15 years in total), technology has evolved to such a point that a physical printed book has been replaced with Internet access.
We are all aware of the great pressure books and newspapers are facing from ebooks and applications such as Zinio that allow magazines to be viewed on PC’s, tablets and cellphones. The sudden end to the printing of the Britannica encyclopedia is symptomatic of a larger transformation away from physical books to ebooks.
I also take into consideration that Britannica ending print could be partly due to Wikipedia. Yes, I said Wikipedia and before you get angry, just think about how many times you have visited Wikipedia in the last month. As sad as this entire exercise may seem, the sad reality is that print media needs to find a solution quickly to the current downward spiral it is in…
