![]() ![]() It has sold all but 800 of the 4,000 sets of the 32-volume 2010 edition it had left at a Kentucky warehouse, the company said. Since Britannica announced last month that it was discontinuing its print editions, the Chicago-based company said sales have skyrocketed. "While Wikipedia has become ubiquitous, the Britannica remains a consistently more reliable source," she said.It turns out all Encyclopaedia Britannica had to do to breathe new life into the sale of its print edition was to kill it. Kobayashi said as information professionals, librarians see an important part of their role as directing patrons to trustworthy information sources. "The most important thing about Britannica is that Britannica is relevant and vibrant because it brings scholarly knowledge to an editorial process to as many knowledge seekers as possible." ![]() "To me, the most important message is that the printed edition was not what made Britannica," Cauz said. It also has a staff of more than 100 editors. "If the search is broader, searching across several online sources may yield more options."īritannica has thousands of experts' contributors from around the world, including Nobel laureates and world leaders such as former President Bill Clinton and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. "Sometimes subject knowledge and familiarity with standard resources may get faster results than keying in a search and sifting through results," she said. Kobayashi noted that whether she uses traditional methods in doing research or going online depends on the question she wants answered. "The major disadvantage is the need for a computer or devices with access to the Internet." "There are many advantages to online searching, chief among them the ability to search within the text," Kobayashi said. However, the proliferation of publishers of electronic databases has resulted in an audience becoming attuned to online searching. Lynne Kobayashi of the Language, Literature & History section of the Hawaii State Library notes there will always be people who prefer using print sources over electronic sources. "Whereas our online edition is updated continuously." "A printed encyclopedia is obsolete the minute that you print it," Cauz said. The encyclopedia has become increasingly social as well, Cauz said, because users can send comments to editors. Online versions of the encyclopedia now serve more than 100 million people around the world, the company said, and are available on mobile devices. The company plans to mark the end of the print version by making the contents of its website available free for one week, starting Tuesday. "The sales of printed encyclopedias have been negligible for several years," Cauz said. The final hardcover encyclopedia set is available for sale at Britannica's website for $1,395. The first CD-ROM version was published in 1989 and a version went online in 1994. The company started exploring digital publishing the 1970s. That number fell to 40,000 just six years later in 1996, he said. The top year for the printed encyclopedia was 1990, when 120,000 sets were sold, Cauz said. "This has to do with the fact that now Britannica sells its digital products to a large number of people." "This has nothing to do with Wikipedia or Google," Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc. ![]()
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