I remember being a kid at school, bored in study hall, getting out the encyclopaedia and trying to get through as much of it as possible before the bell rang. I suppose it is time to stop killing trees if no one wants to buy 24 huge volumes but a part of me is sad to see this end.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/mar/13/encyclopedia-britannica-halts-print-publication

Considering how fast knowledge is spreading these days and facts change, this was inevetable.

But encyclopaediae, especially the EB, weren't just reference books, they also where a "window" in the cultural and scientific development at the published time. Something like this isn't as easily possible with "digital works". Reading EB entries from the 19th century is just fascinating.

As sad as the inevitable disappearance of printed books is, it's welcome and inevitable. I hate to think how many trees are destroyed just for one edition of any book out there. Soon we will all have gadgets like Kindle. It's fascinating to think that just one such device can contain thousands of volumes (a whole library). Students will no longer need to haul heavy bags filled with textbooks and notebooks. Just one device will be enough for all needs. The bad news is that penmanship will disappear, but so did dodo. :P

I agree with SimonG. Printed encyclopedias are getting less and less useful, because knowledge gathered there is getting outdated pretty fast.

But no longer get "cesura editions". Online, single articles will be adjusted whenever updates are available, they aren't waiting for a new "edition" online. From now on, we won't see those "single moment in time" snapshots of knowledge.

You could do something like "previous version" as wikipedia has, but it just wouldn't be the same.

Wow, end of an era.

I never really thought about buying a set, but now I'd actually like to get that last run.

Yeah we have an old set of encyclopedias from the 70s and the article on space exploration is really top-notch, not just for the information (which is still accurate) but for the tone. It was written during a time when people really believed in space exploration, and the future was bright and fresh, and there was a frontier to be explored. It's a very very different feel to the general tone of scientific endeavor in the current era. I think it's a terrible shame, because these sorts of things are a genuine window into the mindset of the authors, and they're historically valuable. (They will be, at least.)