Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2012 08:08:33 -0400 From: mark <whitroth at 5-cent.us> To: "gt-pfrc at ml.gt.org" <gt-pfrc at ml.gt.org>, WSFA Official List <wsfa-forum at yahoogroups.com>, WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>, bsfsgeneral at bsfs.org Subject: [WSFA] Encyclopedia Britannica halts print publication after 244 years Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net> Excerpt: Its legacy winds back through centuries and across continents, past the birth of America to the waning days of the Enlightenment. It is a record of humanity's achievements in war and peace, art and science, exploration and discovery. It has been taken to represent the sum of all human knowledge. And now it's going out of print. The Encyclopedia Britannica has announced that after 244 years, dozens of editions and more than 7m sets sold, no new editions will be put to paper. The 32 volumes of the 2010 installment, it turns out, were the last. Future editions will live exclusively online. For some readers the news will provoke malaise at the wayward course of this misguided age. Others will wonder, in the era of Wikipedia, what took the dinosaur so long to die. Neither view quite captures the company or the crossroads. Jorge Cauz, president of Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc, suggested that the encyclopedia was already something of a relic within the company itself, which has long since moved its main business away from its trademark publication and into online educational tools. --- end excerpt --- <http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/mar/13/encyclopedia-britannica-halts-print-publication> mark -- The busiest woman in the afterlife: "Hello, this is Cleopatra, can you hold, please?"