The Boston Globe's Alex Beam wonder, "Will anyone ever print another reference work again?"

Madison Public Library weeds its reference collection (2009)

The definition of change. Print versions of dictionaries and other reference books are fading away, but there’s much to learn — and spend — online. (Boston Globe, 1/28/2011)

A trip down memory lane.

2009 yearbook found at 7 of 49 LINKcat library locations.

Excerpt:   Oxford execs don’t like to speculate whether the ODNB or the better-known, 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary, which is undergoing a decades-long, aardvark-to-zebra revision, will appear in new print editions. “I wouldn’t rule out future print editions of these great works,’’ says scholarly and reference director Robert Faber. “There’s no reason to make that decision now.’’

Dust had settled on the tops of these books.

The venerable Encyclopedia Britannica needs to decide soon whether to invest $6 million to $7 million in a 16th edition, or invest the money in its online products. “The economics [of print] are almost antiquated,’’ says senior vice president Michael Ross. “And the minute after you go to press, the books start turning into brown bananas.’’

MUST KEEP city directories --

at least until they are digitized

My exchange with Oxford’s Poetry Man prompted me to wonder: Will anyone ever print another reference work again?

Not to mention....

Let’s tour America’s reference boneyard: Microsoft’s Encarta dictionary; the Random House Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language; Webster’s College Dictionary; the Merriam-Webster Biographical Dictionary, and the Encyclopedia Americana, among others.

Where 3 ranges of reference shelving used to reside at the Middleton Public Library.   The much-reduced collection now shares shelf space with back issues of magazine.