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I Just Bought the Only Physical Encyclopedia Still in Print, and I Regret Nothing

posted by hubie on Sunday June 11, @06:46PM   Printer-friendly
from the antidote-to-the-information-apocalypse dept.

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/culture/2023/06/rejoice-its-2023-and-you-can-still-buy-a-22-volume-paper-encyclopedia/

These days, many of us live online, where machine-generated content has begun to pollute the Internet with misinformation and noise. At a time when it's hard to know what information to trust, I felt delight when I recently learned that World Book still prints an up-to-date book encyclopedia in 2023. Although the term "encyclopedia" is now almost synonymous with Wikipedia, it's refreshing to see such a sizable reference printed on paper.
[...]
Its fiercest competitor of yore, The Encyclopedia Britannica, ended its print run in 2012 after 244 years in print.

In a nod to our present digital age, World Book also offers its encyclopedia as a subscription service through the web. Yet it's the print version that mystifies and attracts my fascination. Why does it still exist?

"Because there is still a demand!" Tom Evans, World Book's editor-in-chief, told Ars over email.
[...]
A World Book rep told Quartz in 2019 that the print encyclopedia sold mostly to schools, public libraries, and homeschooling families. Today, Evans says that public and school libraries are still the company's primary customers. "World Book has a loyal following of librarians who understand the importance of a general reference encyclopedia in print form, accessible to all."

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  • (Score: 2) by RamiK on Monday June 12, @10:25AM (2 children)

    by RamiK (1813) on Monday June 12, @10:25AM (#1311086)

    I suffer from post-COVID-19 dischronology

    I'm not sure what you've misspelled but it might need some reconsideration now that the symptoms list been narrowed down: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/25/health/long-covid-symptoms-definition/index.html [cnn.com] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2805540 [jamanetwork.com]

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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by gtomorrow on Monday June 12, @11:27AM (1 child)

    by gtomorrow (2230) on Monday June 12, @11:27AM (#1311090)

    While I truly appreciate your concern (thank you!), I'm afraid mine is an extemporaneously made-up disease. What I meant to say sans-facetiousness is that since COVID-19, which luckily I've never contracted, I can no longer say with any confidence, for example, "two years ago..." because "two years ago" was most likely actually "four or maybe five years ago". I hope I've explained myself and I'm sure that I am not the only "sufferer".

    I suppose the closest **real** medical condition would be [Dyschronometria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyschronometria).

    • (Score: 2) by RamiK on Monday June 12, @12:11PM

      by RamiK (1813) on Monday June 12, @12:11PM (#1311093)

      an extemporaneously made-up disease...the closest **real** medical condition

      LOL I knew something was up since I see "asynchronous" a lot in CS literature and know the Greek "chronous" should have been matched with dys as in "dyssynchronous" for it to be a real word. :)

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