This week for one of my classes, I (Miriam) have been researching the etymology of sixty English color words using the Oxford English Dictionary, the American Heritage Dictionary, and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. While this has proved an interesting study, I have found myself frustrated with obtaining access to various dictionaries. For the project, students had to use the latest edition of the dictionaries to assure that they gathered the most updated information. Aside from going and sitting in the library for hours with the reference book edition, this required me to use online editions.
When I mentioned this fact to Dr. Robinson this morning, she asked me if I knew that after 244 years in print the Encyclopedia Britannica was no longer going to be published in a print edition because of the lack of demand. Interested, I went online to find out information and found the following videos. In the first one, the President of the Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. claims that the transition does not have anything to do with Google and Wikipedia. For this, I would like your opinion. Do you feel that this is a valid claim? Why or why not? How has having free access to sources changed the ways you look for information? What effects do you think that the internet will have on the future of publishing? Are you for or against these changes?