I’m sure we all remember a time before internet. You know, when we had to do a project for school and had to go to the library and actually look stuff up in books. The first set of books was normally the Encyclopedia Britannica. After 244 years, no more.

That’s a pretty long history, 244 years. A lot of people, especially those with kids, proudly displayed them on their bookshelves – often passing them from generation to generation. The last edition was published in 2010, spanning 32 volumes and weighing in at over 58 kilograms. That’s the same weight as your girlfriend. The latest edition contained new entries on global warming as well as the human genome project.

Unfortunately, given the rapid rate at which information changes, as well as Wikipedia’s 11 year reign as the king of basic reference, print media and particularly reference print media is simply not able to keep up.

The Britannica, the oldest continuously published encyclopedia in the English language, has become a luxury item with a R10 500 price tag. It is frequently bought by embassies, libraries and research institutions, and by well-educated, upscale consumers who felt an attachment to the set of bound volumes. Only 8,000 sets of the 2010 edition have been sold, and the remaining 4,000 have been stored in a warehouse until they are bought.

Britannica will not be going out of business though – it will be shifting its focus to it’s website, where it charges a premium of R530 for their services. This includes encyclopedic entries, as well as articles. An app for iPhone and iPad is also available.

[Source: New York Times]