[afrilex] Re: [euralex] Re: End of print dictionaries at Macmillan
- From: Josà Aguirre <jaguirreuk@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: euralex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, DSNA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, lexicographylist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, asialex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, afrilex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, lexicografie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, ishll@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx, gillesmaurice.deschryver@xxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2012 05:36:57 -0800 (PST)
Breaking news translated into plain English:
Macmillan are the first
to really feel the pinch and will count their pennies from now on. No
more printing or shipping costs, put an end to bokseller's (outrageous)
profit margins and start charging libraries and end users for
(renewable) subscription fees to the online service, recycle the same
old stuff over and over again to "diversify" their products. Good news
for publishers indeed. As for the end user, well, we've all been there
before, they will enjoy the functionality of their digital resources:
"your session has expired, your search history was not saved, please log
on again, type in your subscription number, user name and password" and
so on and so forth. This development will only increase the value of
the printed dictionaries that we already own and enjoy.
Regards,
Josà Aguirre
--- On Mon, 11/5/12, Gilles-Maurice de Schryver
<gillesmaurice.deschryver@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Gilles-Maurice de Schryver <gillesmaurice.deschryver@xxxxxxxx>
Subject: [euralex] Re: End of print dictionaries at Macmillan
To: euralex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, DSNA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
lexicographylist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, asialex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, afrilex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx,
lexicografie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, ishll@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Monday, November 5, 2012, 11:00 AM
Dear Friends and Colleagues, ÂThis is Breaking News indeed! Â"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 ÂFor 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. ÂMore info in Michael Rundellâs post below. ÂKind
regards,Gilles-Maurice de SchryverPresident of AFRILEX and author of
"Lexicographers' Dreams in the Electronic-Dictionary Age" (IJL 16.2, 2003, free
access here) Â ÂFrom: 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 ÂMacmillan 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:Â
http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/bye-print-dictionary. Â
Other related posts:
