Am I worthy enough for the Encyclopaedia Britannica? We’ll see. I just requested permission, as a blogger, to be allowed to access their information for free, via their WebShare program, which I saw at Mashable. It’s not immediate acceptance – if I’m just faking this blogging stuff, then apparently I won’t be accepted. But whoo-hoo if I’m in – no more slumming at Wikipedia, no sir! I mean, the EB must be better – it’s not free. Right? Not that I have ever paid the $69.95 annual fee to get access to it. Do you?
Per Alexa, Wikpedia is ranked as the 7th most visited website, and the EB website is 2,477. I have been doing a lit search for work on sustainability and the triple bottom line (economic, environmental and social sustainability – it’s related to corporate social responsibility) and tried to search for “triple bottom line” on EB. Wikipedia has an very informative entry on the term with a good amount of links; EB *may* mention the term in passing in an overview of 2007 business trends, but I can’t tell for sure because I have to subscribe to find out. In any case, no dedicated entry. *Less* information is worth $70 bucks a year?
I see that they still sell hardcopies of the Britannica. The set costs $1395.00 for the 32-volume set (you also get access to their website thrown in for free). My parents bought a set of these books back in the late 70s/early 80s, as well as the World Book (which is also still for sale. Cost depends on binding: either a little under or a little over $1000.00). I love books, but I can’t see a $1400.00 price tag without thinking that a family could buy a very, very nice desktop PC for that amount of money. Does anyone besides libraries actually buy these anymore?
Not that I’m against owning reference books: I have bought the one-volume Columbia Encyclopedia for myself and others, and I love the World Almanac and books like it. I own a lovely hardback book on etiquette, a big atlas, and the 2000+ page hardcover American Heritage Dictionary. When I moved to California from Ohio, the moving van had 40 boxes of books in it. I love my books – there is pleasure in a physical book that nothing online could ever match. But I can’t access my home library at work, or on the bus. And I doubt that any of my reference books have an entry on the triple bottom line.
