Oxford English Dictionary may never be printed again ('I don't think so.' -publisher)

[onehandle]

Source: AFP

LONDON (AFP) – The next edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, the word reference bible of the English language, may never appear in print and instead be accessible only online, its publisher said Tuesday.

A team of 80 lexicographers are preparing the third edition of the OED, but with more than a decade of work ahead of them and digital books fast gaining popularity, the publishers are hedging their bets on what format it will take.

"The first edition of the multi-volume Oxford English Dictionary was fully published in 1928, and the second edition in 1989," a spokeswoman for Oxford University Press said Tuesday.

"No decision has yet been made on the format of the third edition.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100831/wl_uk_afp/britainpublishingdictionary_20100831150719

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Oxford University Press: “The print dictionary market is just disappearing, it is falling away by tens of per cent a year,” Nigel Portwood, the chief executive of OUP, told the Sunday Times. Asked if he thought the third edition would be printed, he said: “I don’t think so.”

snip...

Mr Portwood said printed dictionaries had a shelf life of about another 30 years, with the pace of change increased by the popularity of e-books and devices such as the Apple iPad and Amazon’s Kindle.

Simon Winchester, author of ‘The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary’, said the switch towards online formats was “prescient”. He said: “Until six months ago I was clinging to the idea that printed books would likely last for ever. Since the arrival of the iPad I am now wholly convinced otherwise.

“The printed book is about to vanish at extraordinary speed. I have two complete OEDs, but never consult them – I use the online OED five or six times daily. The same with many of my reference books – and soon with most. “Books are about to vanish; reading is about to expand as a pastime; these are inescapable realities.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/7970391/Oxford-English-Dictionary-will-not-be-printed-again.html

[Dappleganger]

1. I'm a reluctant eBook convert.

We have a library in our home and probably have more than 1,500 books (it's now our oldest son's bedroom). Both dh and myself are avid readers and quite often I'll keep two going at once, depending upon the mood. Earlier this summer when I was down with a back injury, my sister sent me a NOOK (the Barnes and Noble version of Kindle). Needless to say, it now goes with me everywhere (PT, waiting rooms, doctors' office, even in front of the tv). It makes it easy to look up any word using search and I can't imagine needing a dictionary ever again.

We have a giant Webster dictionary in our family room and it hasn't been used in several years, thanks to online searches. When I was a kiddo reading the dictionary was a favorite pastime (and of course drawing in it, we still have our old one).

[Demeter]

2. Until, Of Course, We Lose the Electricity, the Internet, or the Technology

Never say never. Books last and they are self-contained.

[FSogol]

3. Books really only last in dry cool places. Turn off the a/c in most libraries

and the books would be unreadable in 4-5 years.

[Frisbee]

9. I have an Encyclopedia Americana...

from 1832 and the pages are like new. I'm pretty sure they didn't have AC for close to 100 years after it was published.

[Kelvin Mace]

13. It depends on the type of paper

especially the acid content. High quality rag papers last a long time, thus reference books from long ago generally look pretty good since they were printed on the highest quality paper, whereas "popular" books will be yellow and the paper brittle sometimes in a mere decade, depending on where they were kept (moisture is far more damaging to books than heat) I LOVE books, but I also see the appeal from an environmental side to ebooks. Paper and ink are trees and oil, yet the readers of of ebooks (Kindles et al) have far shorter life spans than the books themselves.

Arrrgh!

For the moment I buy hard copy only for special books and reference books slow to change. All else is digital.

I am also trying to "de-clutter" my life and have WAY too many books.

I am open to other solutions.

[Frisbee]

14. Thanks for the info...

I knew there were different papers with varying lifespans, but didn't know they had any papers so long ago with longer lifespans. Good to know.

[Kelvin Mace]

16. The highest quality paper had linen in it

whereas mass produced paper (and newsprint) had very high acid content from the treatment for rapidly breaking down the wood pulp. If you want a good example, U.S. currency is 75% cotton, 25% linen, which is why it doesn't rapidly disintegrate in your pocket like, say, a dry cleaner's ticket.

[Javaman]

35. Funny you say that...

One of my many jobs were I work is being the archivist.

I deal with "blue prints" that run back over 100 years.

Te earliest one I have ever handled personally was over 110 years old. It was ink on linen.

Aside from the "soap smell" it was like a brand new freshly drawn document. (Actually, it was like a work of art, but that is for another discussion)

However, stuff that was "printed" on mylar as little as 30 years ago is falling apart. The ink is just flaking off the material.

Our newer plots are on acid free paper, printed with soy based ink. I won't know how well that will hold up until a number of years has passed, but so far it seems pretty good.

Yes, anything lasts only as long as the conditions it is stored in.

[superconnected]

15. I have lots of books that are over 100 years old.

As long as they're not in a damp place, they should be fine. I've only had a few very old books I had to toss but that's because they were found under my house in a box that was on the soil and they smelled horridly moldy). Sad because I collect Latin and foreign language books and one of them was an old Latin primer.

[iamthebandfanman]

17. thats dependent on A LOT of variables,

i wouldnt go putting a 4-5 year period for unreadable..

[crazylikafox]

5. +1

Agreed. The return of the dark ages may be easier than we think.

[Demeter]

6. and closer.

[hunter]

7. Someday eBooks will be as tough and as common as bricks.

They'll be sturdy enough to ride around in a kid's backpack year after year after year.

I can imagine eBooks built sturdy enough to survive a two year old, or maybe even a parrot.

My own parrot is insanely jealous of books. "Why are you looking at that stupid book and not ME!!!!!"

Rip, rip, rip, shred, shred.

[superconnected]

19. I have this cat named Dolly - you can have her if you want - what she

does is sharpen her claws on the pages and covers of books I leave on my bed - always reading so she's gotten enough for me to want to kill her. And, she's also destroyed several computer keyboards because she sharpens her claws on those too. Some things will never be durable.

I'm at a toss up with this. I have a library in my room - big room, but lately I've been listening to books on CD when I drive to work so may end up with an e-reader just so they can be read to me. I've read many books on line but it's not the same as the real book so I prefer the real even though I pay nothing for free books when they're classics.

I should also mention layout should be considered. I prefer Moby Dick on Franklin press because of they way they lay it out - paper back is unreadable for that one imo, and Easton Press - tried but made the words all big to make it easier to read so does not stand up to the Franklin press version of beautiful spacing of chapters where you really do want to read it. Franklin made it very friendly. I love Easton's bindings but Franklin does beat them in layout sometimes. I don't think ebooks are going to have that aesthetic and it's something I will miss but only with the harder to read classics - ie Bronte is great in paper back and will likely be in ebook but Melville is difficult and really does need that layout aesthetic.

[Chicago dyke]

21. i don't know what makes you say that

we've had personal computing for decades now, and computers are if anything less reliable today than when they first came out. you still can't get them wet or drop them or otherwise treat them roughly. even the 'action' computers have pretty significant limitations. ebooks aren't going to be made to last, that's not our corporate production model. they'll be like phones and computers, always pushing consumers to upgrade and get the latest meaningless widget add on. i certainly don't see production facility standards improving any time soon, look at the way most electronics manufacturers treat their slav- i mean workers in third world countries. quality is not usually job one.

unless and until i can take an ebook into the bathtub, i'm not interested. or the beach. or over to my nieces house (it's hard enough to keep little kids off a computer as it is). this is one area i'll remain a proud luddite. google can't change the content of a single on of my 2,000 book library, and never will. they're kept cool and dry and will last at least the duration of my lifetime. if the power goes out, or the information becomes banned, i'll still have access to them. amazon doesn't keep or sell of list of what they are, because they don't know. and i can sit in the tub for a long soak with any of them, if i want to. which is often. now, if they invented a scanning robot that could vocalize the books i already own, that would be tempting. even if it's likely impossible and not something anyone would ever try to develop.

[valerief]

4. They should just use Newspeak words. We'll be so dumbed down in ten years

that'll be all we'll be using.

[msanthrope]

8. I always wondered who got the OED in Fahrenheit 451.

Of course, it would have o be more than one person....

[Psephos]

20. lol n/t

[sundayatwork]

10. Who will be handing out the iPads?

I work at an academic library and we still get 18 year old freshmen in her crinkling their noses and asking if we have it in print when we point them to an electronic book. As someone who works with print materials every day I simply do not see the demand from our patrons to move everything to an electronic format.

Reference materials, journal articles and the congressional record are all easier to search in an electronic form, but more often then not when it comes to reading our electronic resources a students first stop is the printers or ILL.

I'm no Luddite, and frankly massive ref works like the OED can have their utility greatly enhanced in an electronic format, but the idea that the printed book is simply going to disappear in the next five years is only spouted by the people selling ebook readers and publishers looking to downsize more staff.

Just like anything else, follow the money. In the case of electronic books you'll find the hype leads right back to the few with the most to gain in terms of control and profit.

[boppers]

26. "Just like anything else, follow the money."

You work at a library, right? Okay, then.

[sundayatwork]

37. Unlike Bezos or Jobs...

I don't get paid for each book we checkout. I draw a salary for helping people find information and preserving that information for the future and for the public good.

[enlightenment]

11. While I understand their reasoning, it's still a damn shame.

There is a unique pleasure in just paging through the OED; the process of simply looking up a word is like opening a treasure chest - the proverbial pot of gold. The online version doesn't allow for that as there is no real sense of browsing and it is impossible to just cast your eye over the page of text.

I'll miss it.

[iamthebandfanman]

18. i just hope theres an archive somewhere making sure to have a copy of every book printed

in a safe climate controlled area that could be accesses after devistation.

i think its very very vital that we maintain a written record and account of everything.

technology can fail, we know that for a fact.

lets just hope it never does.

personally, id miss the smell of books the most of anything ;)

[Crowman1979]

12. Printed dictionaries are handy when the spell checker fails to load up.

[Retrograde]

24. Or the power goes out

I live in the heart of Silicon Valley. Earlier this year the entire town was without power for 9 hours because a plane crash took out a key power transmission tower (fingers are still being pointed about whose fault the design was). I've lived in places where power could be out for a week or more due to winter storms. I like my Kindle, but it's nice to have a backup that doesn't depend on electricity.

I have both a print OED (two, actually) and a library account that gives me on-line access. I'm not getting rid of either any time soon. Besides, the print one's good for pressing flowers :)

[Brother Buzz]

22. The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of OED

by Simon Winchester (1998)

Fascinating background read on how the OED came to be.

[awoke_in_2003]

23. not good...

I love technology. Love my iMac, iPod Touch, and Wii. I absolutely LOATHE electronic books. Call me an old book worm, but I love the feel and smell of books (especially older books). I can also find things in a book quicker when it is printed. You can download books (that are in the public domain) at the Gutenberg project, but I have to print (double sided to save paper) them to enjoy reading.

[Odin2005]

25. This is a very bad precident.

I'm a big fan of electronic gadgets, but printed books are necessary to preserve knowledge if civilization collapses.

[boppers]

28. Your post got me thinking about the Aztecs, Olmec, Eqyptians...

Their works were literally carved in stone, but when their civilizations collapsed, nobody knew how to read it anymore. What good is a book that nobody can read?

On another note, we're still finding ancient papyrus fragments, translating them, and then summarily rejecting them because they're considered obsolete, or unpalatable to modern sensibilities... I'm thinking of the Gospel of Judas, The Gospel of Mary Magdeline, The Gospel of Thomas, (etc.) all of which totally upend Christianity as we know it, therefore, they are ignored or shunned by most Christians.

[Odin2005]

29. I was thinking more along the lines of early Medieval monasteries.

They preserved huge amounts of knowledge.

[boppers]

30. Ah, gotcha.

Check this project out:
http://www.archive.org/about/about.php

[Odin2005]

31. Cool, thanks!

[Javaman]

36. And like all other empires, one day ours will come to an end.

and since we hold such a large piece of the pie, there will be a vacuum as a result.

I have several very old books that keep in cool dry places wrapped tightly in plastic. One of which is version of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.

[dipsydoodle]

27. I've got the microprint version.

Two volumes, 4 pages / page , magnifying glass supplied and very heavy. handy for propping doors open too. :)

[struggle4progress]

32. I've always been PO'ds at meself for not snapping up a copy when I saw it offered at $100:

it goes for something like $400 now and even the CD version runs $300

[dipsydoodle]

33. I inherited mine

My father had bought it back in '80's. In those days I could read the microprint unaided - much to his amazement. No chance of that now. :(

[burrowowl]

34. On-line removes serendipity

How many times searching in a card catalog has something extraneous to what I was looking for and found to be o interest. This doesn't happen with the electronic card catalogs.