Encyclopedias Gather Dust in Internet Age

["Hamaker, Chuck" <cahamake@email.uncc.edu>]

Joe Esposito who contributes to liblicense discussions was quoted in an
article today at the NY Times -from AP.

Encyclopedias Gather Dust in Internet Age
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Disappearing-Encyclopedias.html

Published: March 8, 2004

Filed at 3:27 p.m. ET

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- These are lonely days for encyclopedias. At
libraries, the volumes sit ignored for days on end as information-seeking
patrons tap busily away at nearby computers.

..

"The Internet was really the fifth nail that was driven into the coffin --
not the first," said Joe Esposito, former chief executive of Encyclopaedia
Britannica and now an independent consultant for digital media.

And while the encyclopedia industry's overall revenue in the United States
is growing, sales in 2003 only totaled about $300 million compared to the
high of $800 million in 1989, Esposito estimated.

Chuck Hamaker