'Some people will feel sad about it and nostalgic about it,' Cauz said. On Tuesday, Jorge Cauz, president of the Chicago-based Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc, announced that, 244 years since it was first compiled and printed in Edinburgh, the encyclopedia will no longer be produced in book form. Anything I wanted to know – the circumference of the globe, say, or the migratory habits of Canada geese – my grandfather would look for in there, his prized set of Encyclopedia Britannica.īut such a memory will, from now on, remain just that. 'The most important thing about Britannica is that Britannica is relevant and vibrant because it brings scholarly knowledge to an editorial process to as many knowledge seekers as possible.I remember them well: those heavy black books with their glossy gold lettering, all 32 of them, occupying their own special bookcase in the corner of my grandparents' living room. 'To me the most important message is that the printed edition was not what made Britannica,' Cauz said. It also has a staff of more than 100 editors. President Bill Clinton and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. 'Whereas our online edition is updated continuously.'īritannica has thousands of expert contributors from around the world, including Nobel laureates and world leaders such as former U.S. 'A printed encyclopedia is obsolete the minute that you print it,' Cauz said. The encyclopedia has become increasingly social as well, Cauz said, because users can send comments to editors. Online versions of the encyclopedia now serve more than 100 million people around the world, the company said, and are available on mobile devices. The company plans to mark the end of the print version by making the contents of its website available free for one week starting Tuesday. 'We knew this was going to come.' Online version serves more than 100 million people 'The sales of printed encyclopedias have been neglible for several years,' Cauz said. The final hardcover encyclopedia set is available for sale at Britannica's website for $1,395. The first CD-ROM version was published in 1989 and a version went online in 1994.

The company started exploring digital publishing in the 1970s. That number fell to 40,000 just six years later in 1996, he said. The top year for the printed encyclopedia was 1990, when 120,000 sets were sold, Cauz said. said Tuesday that it will stop publishing print editions of its flagship encyclopedia for the first time.

Britannica encyclopedias for sale