[afrilex] Re: End of print dictionaries at Macmillan
- From: "Gilles-Maurice de Schryver" <gillesmaurice.deschryver@xxxxxxxx>
- To: "'Steven Paas'" <s.paas@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2012 00:05:55 +0100
Thanks Steven. Before long, all Africans will have their solar-powered
cellphones, with free Internet access. This trend is unstoppable. Africa may
very well take the lead in this (just look at how (micro) financing takes place
in Kenya already â they are the world leader:
http://www.economist.com/node/21560912). All best, Gilles-Maurice.
From: Steven Paas [mailto:s.paas@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: maandag 5 november 2012 13:09
To: gillesmaurice.deschryver@xxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [afrilex] Re: End of print dictionaries at Macmillan
Yes Gilles-Maurice, but what about the poor Malawian and other African learners
who have no access to the internet? They still need paper copies! Regards,
Steven
From: Gilles-Maurice de Schryver <mailto:gillesmaurice.deschryver@xxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2012 12:00 PM
To: euralex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ; DSNA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ;
lexicographylist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ; asialex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ;
afrilex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ; lexicografie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ; ishll@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [afrilex] Re: End of print dictionaries at Macmillan
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
This is Breaking News indeed!
"Macmillan Dictionaries will no longer appear as physical books. The final
copies are rolling off the presses at this very moment, and from next year,
Macmillan Dictionary will be available only online."
http://www.macmillaneducation.com/MediaArticle.aspx?id=1778
For the past decade or so, we have all been expecting an announcement like this
from one of the major dictionary publishers, and I am happy to see that the
honour goes to Macmillan, a key player in the monolingual learner's dictionary
market for English. Finally getting rid of the paper constraints, and starting
to exploit the true power of the digital medium -- and to be able to do just
that -- is nothing less than a revolution. I predict that the other major
publishers will now also stop talking about what should be done, to simply take
the step and do it.
More info in Michael Rundellâs post below.
Kind regards,
Gilles-Maurice de Schryver
President of AFRILEX and author of "Lexicographers' Dreams in the
Electronic-Dictionary Age" (IJL 16.2, 2003, free access here
<http://www.oxfordjournals.org/page/4646/3> )
From: euralex-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:euralex-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Anne Dykstra
Sent: maandag 5 november 2012 10:11
To: euralex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [euralex] End of print dictionaries at Macmillan
Macmillan has announced that, from 2013, it will no longer be publishing
dictionaries in book form. It will focus instead on its expanding range of
digital resources. Michael Rundell, Editor-in-Chief of the Macmillan dictionary
list, sees this as both inevitable and entirely positive. He regards the
printed book as a very limiting medium, and increasingly out of step with the
way people look for information in the second decade of the 21st century. While
printed reference books are out of date as soon they go on sale, an online
dictionary can be kept fully up to date. More than this, the digital medium
allows dictionary publishers to provide valuable additional resources, like
audio pronunciations, interactive games, and a thesaurus function. As well as
all these, Macmillan has a crowd-sourced dictionary (the 'Open Dictionary') fed
by users from all over the world, and an active blog with four or five new
posts every week on language-related issues. Michael says he was struck by one
of the findings reported at the recent Euralex Congress in Gilles-Maurice de
Schryver's plenary: his analysis of papers in the Euralex archive showed that
the word 'look up' had declined in frequency and been overtaken by 'search'.
This is the world that dictionaries belong to now. For more details, see the
post on this subject in Macmillan's blog:
http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/bye-print-dictionary.
Other related posts:
