大英百科全書黯淡退場：從印刷的一刻就輸了

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.

大英百科全書總部週二宣佈將停止發行全書，這是該系列書籍自兩百多年前首次出版以來的第一次停發。1768年大英百科全書首次在蘇格蘭的愛丁堡出版。

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後將不再繼續發行。芝加哥總部會繼續提供電子版本的百科全書。領導層宣佈最後的印刷本32本組成的系列即將面世。

"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。

“這和維基百科或谷歌沒關係，”大英百科全書公司的老總Jorge Cauz說，“僅僅是因爲現在電子版的百科全書受衆更大。” Cauz表示1990年百科全書印刷量最高銷售了12萬套；到了1996年，也就是僅僅6年之後，數字便跌落至4萬。

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世紀70年代，公司開始了電子出版，1989年出版了第一個CD版本，1994年出版了在線版本。大英百科全書官網上的最近一版精裝本的價位是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。

他說：“近些年來的銷量一直在下滑，我們知道這是遲早要面對的事情。” 公司計劃將從週二開始免費在網上提供一週最後一個印刷版本的內容。

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 "A printed encyclopedia is obsolete the minute that you print it," he said.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，現在在線版本的大英百科全書在全世界範圍內影響了1億人，並且可供在移動設備上查閱。由於使用者可以給編輯進行評價，大英百科全書影響力達至了空前的地步。他說：“印刷版本的大英百科全書在印刷那一刻就已經過時了，然而我們的網上版本可以實時更新。”"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。

“網上查閱有很多的好處，尤其是在文檔中搜索的能力。”Kobayashi說。“主要缺點在於需要電腦或者其他的聯網設備。” Kobayashi表示，究竟是使用傳統方法還是網上查閱，主要取決於是使用者想獲得什麼樣的答案。

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。

大英百科全書有着成千上萬的來自全世界的專家級編著人員，包括諾貝爾獲獎者，世界領導人如美國前總統克林頓和大主教Desmond Tutu，共有超過100個編輯。

"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說：“對我而言，最重要的信息是印刷版本並不是唯一能成就大英百科全書的。” 他補充道："最重要的是大英百科全書是實用的，盡力給知識探索者提供了專業的知識。”

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表示作爲信息專家，圖書館者們的重要角色在於指引人們去找值得信任的信息資源。她說：“當維基百科變得無處不在時，大英百科全書仍然是我們值得信賴的資源。”