Encyclopedia Britannica Goes Out of Print
This will be the final year that the Encyclopaedia Britannica will be printed, going the way of video rental stores, book stores, and to some degree the post office.
Who can remember the last time they looked up information in an encyclopaedia? I started using the internet way back in 1995, during the days of AOL dial-up. Now anything can be found online with a simple search on Google.
After 244 years the collection proved no match to competitors such as Wikipedia. However Wikipedia can be updated by everyone, and can be very unreliable at times. But on the flip side, the website has also corrected many mistakes found in Britannica (since it can be updated continuously, and the Britannica has to wait until another edition is printed).
Britannica also has a website of its own, containing entries written by experts. The website also contains multimedia aspects that are impossible to reproduce in the printed edition (although eBooks could solve that as well). That website will set you back about $70 for a year subscription.
If you would still like a copy of last printed edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, you can purchase it for $1400. Be sure you have some help to get the 129 pounds worth of book out to your vehicle.
One person has attempted to create a printed version of Wikipedia. By comparison, that would equal an over 900 volume collection (by Britannica standards) and that only contains .01% of all the entries found on the website.
(The idea of walking by a computer to do research, priceless.)
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