Kind of sad... I grew up with these...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- After 244 years, Encyclopedia Britannica will cease production of its iconic multi-volume book sets.

Britannica usually prints a new set of the tomes every two years, but 2010's 32-volume set will be its last. Instead, the company will focus solely on its digital encyclopedia and education tools.

The news is sure to sadden champions of the printed word, but Britannica president Jorge Cauz said the move is a natural part of his company's evolution.

"Everyone will want to call this the end of an era, and I understand that," Cauz says. "But there's no sad moment for us. I think outsiders are more nostalgic about the books than I am."

In truth, Cauz says, the death knell sounded long ago. Though the name "Britannica" calls the print sets to mind, Cauz says they represent less than 1% of the company's total sales.

"The print set is an icon. But it's an icon that doesn't do justice to how much we've changed over the years," Cauz says.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/13/technology/encyclopedia-britannica-books/index.htm?hpt=hp_t3

Map makers are next.

The print version of The Encylopedia Britannica referred to them as "Cartographers" . . .
I'm not sure what label the print version of Wikipedia will apply.

I love looking at an old globe that I still have.
It has countries like: The Belgian Congo, French Indochina, Siam and The United States of America.

Amazing how the world keeps changing

I haven't used one since 95 or so. The world is moving too fast for the investment of printing to be worth it. Even textbooks are obsolete once printed.

I haven't used one since 95 or so. The world is moving too fast for the investment of printing to be worth it. Even textbooks are obsolete once printed.

That doesn't affect the price when you buy a used text book....

There are already tons of e-textbooks out there and it won't be long until it makes more sense for schools to check out iPads to students (or similar) rather than investing in old hardback books.


Evolve or die! Just ask Sears and Kodak and hundreds of others that once ruled their industries.

No more heavy backpacks.... everything on an iPad.

Good idea on the iPads. Interactive educational media make learning much more easy and fun. Some of the interactive graphs in the ups version of Our Choice tell a more complete story than 3-4 pages of text could really get across.

Yeah, with the hysteria over lockers you see little kids hauling around huge books in their backpacks, and many are outdated -- especially anything with history or maps.

It could be argued that over the last century education has changed much less than just about any other field. The paradigm of an adult authority figure speaking (usually not very interactively) in front of seated rows of kids is still largely the norm.

It seems the most important skill in the new economy is to be able to research and figure things out, not memorize dates and equations.

One thing about all this . . .
When the day comes that the electricity goes away, at least you can read a book by firelight.
Perhaps "research reading" in order to figure out how to start a fire by rubbing two sticks together.
(Which doesn't actually work very well, btw. One of those strap-spinner bow lookin' deals works much better.)

Best of all there will be no tangible paper records of what "elites" thought were the closest thing to "truth"--on many subjects--at one point in history.

Okay: I'll admit it. I always wanted a set of the Encylopedia Brittanica but just couldn't bring myself to drop $750+ dollars on even a "Valu-Pryct" set. And if I had there wouldn't even be a passing reference to Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. Still . . . It might make good kindling. =)

Hmmmm....even as a member of tech-savvy Generation Y I have mixed feelings about this.

Yeah, it was probably only a matter of time before this happened. There simply isn't a need for most people to drop $800+ on an encyclopedia set when it can easily be uploaded on a disk, flash drive, or downloaded on your PC or tablet. It will probably save a lot of trees too.

OTOH, there is something about studying things off paper that just causes things to "stick" better in your head. When I was in school, I would try and get away with staring at the notes on the computer and would always do poorer than if I just printed them off. Maybe its because you can make notes on them, or "dogtail" the pages, or maybe its because you have to search physically where the info is instead of just typing it into a bar and it appears like magic. There is something about having to manually look stuff that causes the mind to be sharp IMO.

My aunt, who has been a teacher in the Atlanta area for about 30 years, said they biggest thing she's noticed in kids today is that they are indeed getting "smarter" with the amount of knowledge but their problem solving and critical thinking skills are in the toilet. Why would kids need to think critically if all they need to do is just "google" something and they find the answer? I'm certainly not suggesting we got back to abacuses, but just be a little more aware the role technology is playing in our education system.

It's not just notes on a screen though. Interactive education tools can show processes and interactions in ways that couldn't have been dreamed of when I was in high school.

And they still have to think critically about the information they find when they go looking. The simple tru to this is at the bulk of what is taught now in secondary and post-secondary schools was not even taught at a graduate level 15 years ago. Textbooks just can't keep up with that pace.

Trillions of trees just breathed a sigh of relief sending 150 extra years of oxygen into the air... ;-)

OTOH, there is something about studying things off paper that just causes things to "stick" better in your head. When I was in school, I would try and get away with staring at the notes on the computer and would always do poorer than if I just printed them off.

Perhaps this is just because of the way we all learned to learn?

I will say that as a kid I LOVED the World Books my parents had in a bookcase in our living room. I loved just picking a volume and pouring over it. WB did a great job of presenting information in a compelling way. We also had some old Funk & Wagnalls but they were incredibly dry and remained largely untouched.

But no encyclopedia can even scratch the surface of what the Internet already offers and the content is growing by leaps and bounds. I used to joke about having the goal of being omniscient but I swear, it's almost been realized in many ways.



My aunt, who has been a teacher in the Atlanta area for about 30 years, said they biggest thing she's noticed in kids today is that they are indeed getting "smarter" with the amount of knowledge but their problem solving and critical thinking skills are in the toilet. Why would kids need to think critically if all they need to do is just "google" something and they find the answer? I'm certainly not suggesting we got back to abacuses, but just be a little more aware the role technology is playing in our education system.

I think they just have to exercise different critical thinking. To the extent answers already exist -- and they almost always do -- being able to find them is at least as important as what we have always characterized as knowledge.


One of the huge problems with education is that it's taught by people who were completely indoctrinated by the existing system. In fact, it's the only way you can get a job.

I alluded to this earlier but education hasn't changed nearly as much as almost every other field and I'm more and more convinced that is not a good thing.

Trillions of trees just breathed a sigh of relief sending 150 extra years of oxygen into the air... ;-)

And sucked down millions of tons of carbon, yep.

I alluded to this earlier but education hasn't changed nearly as much as almost every other field and I'm more and more convinced that is not a good thing.
It is harder for education to change because educators are less willing to make errors. And really they should be. If we invest in some kind of power source and it turns out to have been a waste of time we are out man-hours and resources. If we invest in the wrong kind of education then we stand to lose a generation of kids to nonsense.

Anyone catch the news feature on KhanAcademy the other night. Great site. I try and watch one each morning.

http://www.khanacademy.org/

From their site;
"Watch. Practice.
Learn almost anything for free.

With a library of over 3,000 videos covering everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history and 315 practice exercises, we're on a mission to help you learn what you want, when you want, at your own pace."

The medium most in danger is paperback books. The paperback book buyer is rapidly moving to electronic devices. Personally, I buy books for the long haul and only purchase hardbacks. Now that Barnes and Noble has introduced their classic line in hardback (not the leatherbound) I have been buying them. They are only $6.50 after the educators discount.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/03/encyclopedia-britannica.html