"Today our digital database is much larger than what we can fit in the print set," Cruz said. The company says that Britannica is now available to more than 100 million people every day around the world. It seems that with the revamp of its online encyclopedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica is looking to mirror Wikipedia's expansive information model along with adding educational tools, platforms, and multimedia. Some people point to Wikipedia as one of the factors in the print encyclopedia's demise. It has been downhill for print sales ever since. According to The New York Times, the entire set costs $1,395 and only 8,000 copies have been sold 4,000 remaining copies have been warehoused until sold.Įncyclopaedia Britannica's sales peaked in 1990 with the sale of 120,000 sets, just before the boom of the Internet. Lissauer, and dozens of Nobel Prize winners. The 2010 edition is the last print edition of the encyclopedia and has more than 4,000 contributors, including pro golfer Arnold Palmer, NASA scientist Jack J. Throughout the years, the books grew from three volumes into a 32-volume set. It is the oldest continuously published encyclopedia in the English language, according to The New York Times. "That mission is to be a reliable, up-to-date, and scholarly source of knowledge and learning for the general public."Įncyclopaedia Britannica got its start 244 years ago by three Scotsmen who wanted to bring scholarly knowledge to the public. "In spite of our long history with print, I would like to point out that no single medium, neither books nor bits, is at the core of our mission," Encyclopaedia Britannica President Jorge Cruz said in a statement. Now, in the digital age, the company will focus on its online encyclopedias and educational curriculum for schools. ![]() However, Encyclopaedia Britannica is also quick to say that this change isn't its swan song. The leather-bound print edition set of reference books is now defunct, the company announced today. "It just makes sense to embrace our digital products," he said.Gone are the days of walking over to the bookshelf, grabbing an Encyclopaedia Britannica, and flipping through the pages to look up whatever piqued one's curiosity. Online versions of the encyclopedia now serve more than 100 million people around the world and are available on mobile devices, the company said. ![]() Though the scarcity of the 2010 edition may be making it popular, the company has long known that the print sales were never going to come back to anything approaching the peak year of 1990 when 120,000 were sold.īritannica, which published the first CD-ROM edition in 1989, introduced an online version in 1994. If that sounds like a lot of money, secondary sellers online are asking more than $3,200 a set for the 2010 edition - and that's before the company has run out of the ones it has.ĭuckler said the sudden spike in sales hasn't prompted anyone at Britannica to rethink the decision to discontinue selling the print edition. He added that Britannica - which first published its book form encyclopedia in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1768 - will hold onto a few sets so they can be displayed somehow or donated to museums.Īs they did before the announcement, the sets are selling for $1,395. The company will likely sell out by the end of the month, Duckler said.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |