大英百科全书黯淡退场：从印刷的一刻就输了

Encyclopedia Britannica Inc. said on Tuesday that it will stop publishing print editions of its flagship encyclopedia for the first time since the sets were originally published more than 200 years ago. The book-form of Encyclopedia Britannica has been in print since it was first published in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1768.

大英百科全书总部周二宣布将停止发行全书，这是该系列书籍自两百多年前首次出版以来的第一次停发。1768年大英百科全书首次在苏格兰的爱丁堡出版。

It will stop being available when the current stock runs out, the company said. The Chicago-based company will continue to offer digital versions of the encyclopedia. Officials said the end of the printed, 32-volume set has been foreseen for some time。

公司表示目前的存量售完之后将不再继续发行。芝加哥总部会继续提供电子版本的百科全书。领导层宣布最后的印刷本32本组成的系列即将面世。

"This has nothing to do with Wikipedia or Google," Encyclopedia Britannica Inc. President Jorge Cauz said. "This has to do with the fact that now Britannica sells its digital products to a large number of people." The top year for the printed encyclopedia was 1990, when 120,000 sets were sold, Mr Cauz said. That number fell to 40,000 just six years later in 1996, he said。

“这和维基百科或谷歌没关系，”大英百科全书公司的老总Jorge Cauz说，“仅仅是因为现在电子版的百科全书受众更大。” Cauz表示1990年百科全书印刷量最高销售了12万套；到了1996年，也就是仅仅6年之后，数字便跌落至4万。

The company started exploring digital publishing the 1970s. The first CD-ROM version was published in 1989 and a version went online in 1994. The final hardcover encyclopedia set is available for sale at Britannica's website for $1,395.

20世纪70年代，公司开始了电子出版，1989年出版了第一个CD版本，1994年出版了在线版本。大英百科全书官网上的最近一版精装本的价位是1395美金。

"The sales of printed encyclopedias have been negligible for several years," he said. "We knew this was going to come." The company plans to mark the end of the print version by making the contents of its website available free for one week, starting on Tuesday。

他说：“近些年来的销量一直在下滑，我们知道这是迟早要面对的事情。” 公司计划将从周二开始免费在网上提供一周最后一个印刷版本的内容。

Online versions of the encyclopedia now serve more than 100 million people around the world, the company said, and are available on mobile devices. The encyclopedia has become increasingly social as well, Mr Cauz said, because users can send comments to editors. "A printed encyclopedia is obsolete the minute that you print it," he said. "Whereas our online edition is updated continuously."

公司表示，现在在线版本的大英百科全书在全世界范围内影响了1亿人，并且可供在移动设备上查阅。由于使用者可以给编辑进行评价，大英百科全书影响力达至了空前的地步。他说：“印刷版本的大英百科全书在印刷那一刻就已经过时了，然而我们的网上版本可以实时更新。”

"There are many advantages to online searching, chief among them the ability to search within the text," Kobayashi said. "The major disadvantage is the need for a computer or devices with access to the Internet." Kobayashi noted that whether she uses traditional methods in doing research or going online depends on the question she wants answered。

“网上查阅有很多的好处，尤其是在文档中搜索的能力。”Kobayashi说。“主要缺点在于需要电脑或者其他的联网设备。” Kobayashi表示，究竟是使用传统方法还是网上查阅，主要取决于是使用者想获得什么样的答案。

Britannica has thousands of experts' contributors from around the world, including Nobel laureates and world leaders such as former President Bill Clinton and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. It also has a staff of more than 100 editors。

大英百科全书有着成千上万的来自全世界的专家级编著人员，包括诺贝尔获奖者，世界领导人如美国前总统克林顿和大主教Desmond Tutu，共有超过100个编辑。

"To me, the most important message is that the printed edition was not what made Britannica," Mr Cauz said. "The most important thing about Britannica is that Britannica is relevant and vibrant because it brings scholarly knowledge to an editorial process to as many knowledge seekers as possible" he added。

Cauz说：“对我而言，最重要的信息是印刷版本并不是唯一能成就大英百科全书的。” 他补充道："最重要的是大英百科全书是实用的，尽力给知识探索者提供了专业的知识。”

Kobayashi said as information professionals, librarians see an important part of their role as directing patrons to trustworthy information sources. "While Wikipedia has become ubiquitous, the Britannica remains a consistently more reliable source," she said。

Kobayashi表示作为信息专家，图书馆者们的重要角色在于指引人们去找值得信任的信息资源。她说：“当维基百科变得无处不在时，大英百科全书仍然是我们值得信赖的资源。”