The New York Times Magazine recently reported that there are no plans to print a new edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.
The future is here, and the immortal O.E.D., the one that lives in bound pages last published micrographically in 1991, is obsolete — at least according to the folks who publish it. As of now, Oxford University Press has no official plans to publish a new print edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.
However, AskOxford.com presents this statement:
The Third Edition of the OED is already currently available in the form of quarterly updates of new and revised material to the OED Online (www.oed.com). This revision project is unlikely to finish before 2018.
In the future it is likely that OED Online will be the version that most people consult. However, since the present hardback edition has many fans, a new OED in traditional book form is not out of the question. It will depend on demand and printing costs when it is finished.
That doesn't sound like a categorical denial to me, but the fact that it's not assumed that Oxford will print the third edition is a little unnerving. Although I'm unlikely to ever have the space or wherewithal to get the full OED in print (I'm quite happy with the Shorter OED), it's nice to know that it's there, waiting to be consulted, in a nearby public or university library. In this age of ephemeral electronic communication, it seems even more important that our remarkable language be safely recorded in a solid and enduring form.
Naturally encyclopedias are affected by the same online phenomenon. This New York Times article gives a snapshot of the situation, with some encyclopedias going online, new encyclopedias never going into print at all, and print encyclopedias like Britannica possibly being marketed as prestige items.
At the time I got my Encyclopedia Britannica, it was looking as though the whole enterprise could go under and there might never be another printing. I'm glad I jumped on the opportunity to get one because I find it helpful when I am interested in a depth of information that is either greater or lesser than what a website like Wikipedia presents. The great innovation of the 15th edition was the Macropaedia, 17 volumes of comprehensive, sometimes book-length articles on broad topics. This is great when I want in-depth knowledge of a subject but don't want to spend hours reading online. At the other end of the scale, I often consult the Micropaedia when I want a quick and reliable overview without the detail and uneven treatment one finds in Wikipedia.
I should add that there are ways to access these venerable references online for free. My library, and perhaps yours, provides access to the complete OED online through its website. As for the Encyclopaedia Britannica, bloggers can request a free one-year subscriptions through the WebShare program. Not only will you be able to access the encyclopedia, but you will be able to link to it and your readers will also be able to access the full text of the article you linked to. Let's try it, shall we? Since I'm reading War & Peace, how about an article on Russia? I should warn you, though, that the site is littered with ads and very heavy on the Flash. Let me know if it works!
And now, for your amusement...
