Farewell Britannica, and thank you

[Platapus]

The 2010 printed edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica is the last one.

After 244 years, the publishers have decided not to print any more columns but will focus on electronic versions.

Clearly a logical decision, but somehow I am a little sad.

Books are more than just a source of data to me. There was an artistic quality about them.

I have fond memories of flipping through our family's encyclopedia. Learning stuff just because it was close in the alphabet.

With the advent of electronic searching, I doubt future generations will ever experience the intellectual joy of, while looking something up, finding something completely new on the page before it.

Crikey I am old.

Anyway, I fully understand their decision. It is the right decision to make... just a sad one.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/13/tech....htm?hpt=hp_t3

[razark]

Originally Posted by Platapus

I have fond memories of flipping through our family's encyclopedia.
...
With the advent of electronic searching, I doubt future generations will ever experience the intellectual joy of, while looking something up, finding something completely new on the page before it.

Here ya go.

[Oberon]

Understandable, but I hope that there will always be a place in the world for the good old fashioned hard or paperback book. I know there will in my world.

[Takeda Shingen]

I am also sad to see it go. Britannica was a staple of my school-age report research. Sure it is online, but there is something said for going to the library and photocopying the pages you needed.

[vienna]

I regret the loss of serendipity afforded by encyclopedias. While you were looking up information on a subject, you would flip through the pages of the selected volume, and some other subject entry would catch your eye. There is a moment of "Hey, I didn't know that..." that stays with you even after you have found the subject you are seeking. This is lost when all you have to do is enter a keyword and you are taken directly to the subject, without passing "GO" and possibly collecting the odd bit of unexpected knowledge...

[Garion]

I have just brought my 1990 set of Britanica's out of storage, where they were kept safe whilst my house was being re-wired.

The Britanica's helped my girls with their school work and are always availible, even during power cuts, of which we get more than a few where I live

Cheers

Garion

[AngusJS]

Originally Posted by vienna

I regret the loss of serendipity afforded by encyclopedias. While you were looking up information on a subject, you would flip through the pages of the selected volume, and some other subject entry would catch your eye. There is a moment of "Hey, I didn't know that..." that stays with you even after you have found the subject you are seeking. This is lost when all you have to do is enter a keyword and you are taken directly to the subject, without passing "GO" and possibly collecting the odd bit of unexpected knowledge...

That still happens with Wikipedia. By following the chain of links to other articles, I often find myself learning new things that are almost completely unrelated to what I was searching.