Great article, thanks.
Bob
----- Original Message -----
From: Danny Wells <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, October 01, 1999 11:47 AM
Subject: Article in Today's Wall Street Journal on OED
>
> Hello Everyone,
>
> Here is an article from Today's Wall Street Journal concerning the
upcoming
> release of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). The jfw relevance stems
> out of a concern to many blind users of the OED is whether the new CD
> version or web version will be screen reader friendly. Thanks!
>
> Danny
>
>
> Debate Swirls Around the Future
> Of the Oxford English Dictionary
> By JOSHUA HARRIS PRAGER
> Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
>
>
> If history repeats, when the third edition of the Oxford English
Dictionary is
> completed a decade from now, a leather-bound copy will be dedicated and
> presented to the reigning monarch of England in a ceremony at Buckingham
> Palace.
>
> Everyone else may have to go online.
>
> The updated Oxford English Dictionary, the world's most comprehensive
> reference
> book, isn't due out until 2010.
>
> But already controversy is swirling over whether the new edition, expected
to
> swell to at least 40 volumes -- double its current size -- should be
available
> in print or simply online.
>
> 'Tempers Will Flare'
>
> "We're trying not to have the debate," says Royalynn O'Connor, online
product
> director of the OED. "Tempers will flare, and we're not close to making a
> decision yet."
>
> Though the Oxford University Press won't determine until 2008 what form
its
> dictionary will take, a strange collection of concerned interior
designers,
> environmentalists, advocates for the blind, librarians and professors,
> contacts
> the publisher at least weekly to voice an opinion.
>
> "The need for leather books is immeasurable," says Donna Vining, an
interior
> designer in Houston who is enthusiastic about the prospect of the expanded
> dictionary: "I could split 40 books on four shelves."
>
> Not surprisingly, that kind of talk is abhorrent to environmentalists.
"There
> are natural resources that don't need to be used up," says Dave Clark,
> coordinator of a resource-efficiency program in McMinnville, Ore., whose
> specialty is paper conservation. "Eleven years from now, this is going to
be
> more of an issue. They're harvesting more and more trees."
>
> At its core, the debate pits the physical world against the virtual one.
> Proponents of both acknowledge that an online version of the OED --
already
> available on CD-ROM and in a compact version that comes with a magnifying
> glass
> -- will exponentially speed up most word searches and lexicographic
research.
>
> Divine Happenstance
>
> But bibliophiles contend that it denies the reader the tactile pleasures
of
> leafing through pages -- and the joy of divine happenstance. "Being able
to
> flip
> through the book is one of the joys of life," says Penny Silva, deputy
> editor of
> the OED. Adds Simon Winchester with the final words of his book, "The
> Professor
> and the Madman," which profiles the creation of the OED: "Few would
disagree
> that serendipity, in dictionaries, is a most splendid thing indeed."
>
> Nonetheless, the shift in reference works from page to screen is happening
> quickly. Seven years ago, at the annual conference of the professional
> publishing division of the Association of American Publishers, there were
no
> lectures about digital publishing. At the same conference, coming up in
> February, only one of 10 lectures is slated to involve actual books. Says
> Barbara Meredith, vice president of the association's professional arm,
"It
> went
> practically all electronic."
>
> So have some reference works themselves. When Grove's Dictionaries Inc.
began
> compiling its 34-volume Encyclopedia of Life Sciences in 1996, a print
version
> was expected. But now, it is all but certain that when the encyclopedia is
> ready
> in 2001, it will be available only online. "Print is moving away from us,"
> says
> Janice Kuta, president of Grove's.
>
> She adds, "I think by 2010, it won't be an issue."
>
> John Simpson, editor of the OED, isn't convinced. "Whether the whole basis
of
> civilization will have changed in 10 years I'm not quite sure," he says.
> But, he
> acknowledges, "the center of gravity of the dictionary has changed over to
the
> electronic version."
>
> Indeed, beginning in March, the Oxford University Press will make
available
> online snippets of the dictionary's in-the-works third edition.
Subscribers
> will
> have to pay for the service, but the price has yet to be determined. Every
> three
> months, the publisher will roll out online updates of the new electronic
> version.
>
> That's good news for Danny Wells, a professor of political science in
Atlanta
> who is blind. Until now, much of the OED -- because of its great number of
> fonts
> and special characters -- has been virtually impossible for electronic
> scanners
> to read.
>
> And so, the concept of wading through twice as many volumes is
intimidating.
> "With 40 volumes, it would be trial and error," says Mr. Wells. "You could
> spend
> an entire day looking up one word."
>
> In contrast, Ms. O'Connor says the online OED is expected to be
screen-reader
> friendly (except for a few special characters used to denote root forms).
"If
> they're not tickled about the possibility, well, I am," says Mr. Wells.
>
> Katherine Rowe, an associate professor of English at Bryn Mawr College, is
> also
> decidedly in the online camp, largely because a persistent concern hasn't
yet
> materialized. The great fear has been that students "will stop reading,"
says
> Ms. Rowe, who was part of a focus group to help Oxford University Press
assess
> the prospect of an online OED. "But my experience has been just the
> opposite. If
> it's midnight and they have to walk across campus in the winter to the
> library,
> they'll put it off."
>
> If they have the reference work "easily accessible," on their desktop, she
> adds,
> "they'll use it."
>
> Weighty Concerns
>
> Meanwhile, it's the pure heft of 40 printed volumes that makes many
librarians
> shudder. "We'd have to think carefully if we could afford it, both in
terms of
> shelf space and price," says Dale Johnson, head of reference at New Haven,
> Conn.'s Free Public Library. "The volumes are big. They're massive. If we
> added
> it, we'd have to take away some other things."
>
> The idea of shelf space meddling with a purchase of the OED is ridiculous
to
> some. "I think it's a haughty attitude on the part of the librarians,"
says
> Mr.
> Winchester, the author. "What are they going to fill the shelf space
with --
> Jeffrey Archer?"
>
> Lexicographer James Murray began the OED in 1857 hoping to capture and
> document
> every word that was part of the English language since the 12th century.
In
> 1928, when the first edition was completed, it contained nearly 500,000
> entries
> set in type in 12 volumes bound with blue cloth. Today, the dictionary
> assembles
> 750,000 words, and, until a recent promotion, was retailing for $2,995.
> (Following the publication of Mr. Winchester's bestseller, the Oxford
> University
> Press has cut the price to $995.)
>
> Always 'a Money Loser'
>
> The ponderous dictionary costs even more to print. "The OED has always
been a
> money loser," says Frank Abate, editor of the publisher's U.S. volumes.
>
> That's sure to continue. The press is budgeted to spend $55 million over
the
> next decade -- not including any potential printing costs -- for the
300-plus
> lexicographers and academics working on the new edition.
>
> Ultimately, the decision about whether to print the OED will rest with a
group
> of professors at Oxford University -- known as the delegates -- who have
> overseen its publication. And probably, publishing costs ultimately will
> determine the OED's fate.
>
> Mr. Abate, for one, is hopeful. "It would not surprise me if there's a
clamor
> and the OUP decides to bite the bullet and spend the money and print 1,000
> sets," he says. "It has prestige value."
>
> "And nobody else will do it," he adds.
>
>
> Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God,
> and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent, (John 17:3) .
>
> -
> Visit the jfw ml web page: http://jfw.cjb.net
>
-
Visit the jfw ml web page: http://jfw.cjb.net
