B is for Britannica: Rule Britannica!

 A couple of weeks ago, Encyclopedia Britannica released the news that the 2010 edition would be its final print edition. Its first edition was published in 1777. Britannica itself is still in business and runs several online subscription encyclopedias and produces other scholastic products.

The Britannica played a large part in my childhood and adolescence, so I became a bit nostalgic when I heard this news. It made me reflect on the differences between the generations as to the way they source and digest information.

Back in my school days, there really were only two reference sources of any breadth - the World Book and the Encyclopedia Britannica. World Book was funkier than the Britannica in that it was actually digestable by those of us still in high school. Britannica on the other hand had gravitas and was put together by scholars and academics presumably for adults who had a similar vocabulary to scholars and academics. As a high school student, I found the Britannica heavy going and lacking in colour pictures.

In those days, our teacher would give us a project and it was a race to the World Book. This was reference only material and could only be read in the school library. If the volume you were looking for was gone, then bad luck. Your only option was to wait until it was returned to the shelf. If you were lucky enough to get your hands on the right volume in time, then you read the relevant material, but never questioned the source. It was the World Book or Britannica... end of story!

Roll the film forward and you have Gen Y, the first generational graduates of Google University. The concept of having to wait for information is totally foreign. Find anything and everything 24/7! All you need is an internet connection and a working computer. Scrounging for information has been swapped for information overload and a sense of having to be more discriminating about the source.

Gen Y pay for resource/reference material? Forget it! I remember when my parents bought a set of the Encyclopedia Britannica. There was an encyclopedia salesman (another profession on the scrap heap) and major outlay. It was a huge event when they were delivered in 1973. 26 volumes plus atlas and index in all its brown leather bound splendour.

Our 1973 edition

Gen Y not having the latest information? Forget it again! Updates are only a click away. We had to wait for yearly Yearbook updates to be produced by Britannica only to have the information out of date by the time the new volume arrived. This also meant a growing need for more shelf space.

Cover page with dried flower stain

Much to my parents' dismay, the Britannica got the most workout... from them! It was their eternal reference source. Whether it involved a resolution to a disagreement on politics or finding out where a country was located, Britannica was my parents' first source. It was also sort of cool to sit with them and discuss countries whilst leafing through the atlas.

Richard Nixon and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
interesting combination

And so... an end of an era has come. I haven't looked at the Britannica for two decades. The 1973 edition and all the updates still proudly line my parents' shelf. Occasionally a volume is used to press flowers, straighten crumpled paper or as a door stop. That's one thing that Google University and the internet can't be used for.

So, vale the print version of the Britannica. We have swapped gentile and scholarly for speed and abundance. Let's hope its for the better.

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