Encyclopedia Britannica Goes Out of Print

This was inevitable.  You can get the whole thing on a CD or online. And let us not forget about Wikipedia:

Wow.  It really is an end of an era:

After 244 years, the Encyclopaedia Britannica is going out of print.

Those  coolly authoritative, gold-lettered sets of reference books that were  once sold door to door by a fleet of traveling salesmen and displayed as  proud fixtures in American homes will be discontinued, the company is  expected to announce on Wednesday.

In a nod to the realities of  the digital age — and, in particular, the competition from the hugely  popular Wikipedia — Encyclopaedia Britannica will focus primarily on its  online encyclopedias and educational curriculum for schools, company  executives said.

The last edition of the encyclopedia will be the  2010 edition, a 32-volume set that weighs in at 129 pounds and includes  new entries on global warming and the Human Genome Project.

“It’s a  rite of passage in this new era,” Jorge Cauz, the president of  Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., a Chicago-based company, said in an  interview. “Some people will feel sad about it and nostalgic about it.  But we have a better tool now. The Web site is continuously updated,  it’s much more expansive and it has multimedia.”

In  the 1950s and 1960s, a set of encyclopedias on the bookshelf was akin  to a station wagon in the garage or a black-and-white Zenith in the den,  an object coveted not only for its usefulness but as a goalpost for an  aspirational middle class. The books were often a financial stretch,  with many families paying for their encyclopedias in monthly  installments.

Wanna buy a set?  The cost: $1,395.

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