Recently my parents who are both in their 80’s decided to downsize from their home to become renters. The process of downsizing led them to dispense of an array of items collected over the years. One such item was the complete set of gold lined, burgundy leather bound Encyclopaedia Britannica books. My father like so many others in the 1970’s purchased this set at considerable financial cost as an investment in our education. These books tangibly represented the sum of the world’s important facts, figures and noteworthy events, people and places. I can still remember the salesman who came to our door, made the presentation in our living room and 8 weeks later they arrived on our doorstep. This set of books was the Internet before the Internet.
So it was with nostalgia that I could not let these books go. I managed to ship them on board a plane, stretching the limits of my frequent flyer status to accommodate the massive weigh-in at check-in.
This week Encyclopaedia Britannica announced they were discontinuing the print edition of their famous set of books. In a nod to the digital reality we all live in, they will continue to produce content only online.
It seems absurd in today’s world to even consider buying large volumes of printed books annually at significant cost produced by an elite set of expert writers that become outdated in rapid fashion . Yet this is what hundred of school districts in America do every year when they spend millions on textbooks.
The shift from print to digital is old news in most sectors of our society and education is succumbing to this shift as well, albeit much more slowly.
As the next generation of children increasingly access the equivalent of millions of encyclopedias at their finger tips, let’s not forget the symbolic ideal that these once physical books tangibly represented – an investment in a child’s education is one well worth the sacrifice.
