[Foundation-l] [WikiEN-l] Stopping the presses: Britannica to stop printing books

[Yaroslav M. Blanter]

> I've been asked to write a short editorial about this development from
> a Wikipedian's perspective and am curious about (and would love to
> include) other Wikimedian experiences -- did you use print
> encyclopedias as a kid? Was a love of print encyclopedias part of your
> motivation or interest in becoming a Wikipedian? Is there any value in
> them still? Will you miss it?
> 
> cheers,
> -- phoebe

I did use print encyclopedias as a kid  and actually even as adult, until
late 1990s when it became clear that they are getting surpassed by
electronic media, and it became easier to find information on the internet
and fact-check it. Since I was born in 1967 and grew up in Soviet Union, we
did not have easy access to Britannica, and we had to be satisfied with the
third edition of Great Soviet Encyclopedia - and I guess I read the major
part of it, but still there were things I was interested in and could not
find there. I remember at some point, at the age of 12, I got in my
possession two volumes of an old encyclopedia (smth like Universal
Encyclopedia, I do not remember) from 1913, in English, which had something
on O and P. I remember that they had a long article on Portugal which
contained some extensive info on the history of Portugal, which I could not
find elsewhere - so that I had to decipher it (I basically did not speak
English at the time) and to try to understand what it is about. But I do
not think I will miss them - the information is still there, readily
available, and better structured. I would not say that love of print
encyclopedias was my motivation to start editing Wikipedia - rather, I had
and still have broad range of interests, which motivated me reading
handbooks, encyclopedias, and looking at maps when I was the kid, and since
I still know these things better that 95% of wikipedians I felt I can
considerably contribute here. 

Cheers
Yaroslav