[afrilex] Re: [euralex] Re: End of print dictionaries at Macmillan
- From: Michael Rundell <michael.rundell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <jaguirreuk@xxxxxxxxx>, <euralex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <DSNA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <lexicographylist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <asialex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <afrilex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <lexicografie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <ishll@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <gillesmaurice.deschryver@xxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2012 18:26:22 -0000
Dear JosÃ
I'm sure a little scepticism is always a good thing, but this is a very cynical
view, I think.
Could I respond to a few of your suggestions?
(1) start charging libraries and end users for (renewable) subscription fees to
the online service
We'd be happy to do this if we could, but in reality no-one will pay for a
general English dictionary (just as no-one will pay for a general online
newspaper). In order to charge subscriptions, you have to provide premium
content - in other words something which a segment of the market needs, but
which goes beyond what people can easily find for free. Thus the OED, the
Financial Times, and Nature Journal can charge users, and other dictionary
publishers (Macmillan included) may in the future develop premium content for
subscription users - but it is by no means certain this model will work.
(2) recycle the same old stuff over and over again to "diversify" their
products.
The Macmillan Dictionary site (unlike some online dictionaries) is constantly
renewing itself. Not only is the dictionary itself updated regularly, but the
blog has 4 or 5 new posts a week, the crowd-sourced Open Dictionary now has
close to 1500 user-supplied entries, and the weekly Buzzwords column provides
interesting material on langauge change, new words etc: so no recycling of old
data here
(3) 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
Already answered at (1): you are welcome to browse the Macmillan Dictionary all
day if you feel like it
all best wishes
Michael Rundell
Editor-in-Chief, Macmillan Dictionaries
----- Original Message -----
From: Josà Aguirre
To: euralex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ; DSNA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ;
lexicographylist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ; asialex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ;
afrilex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ; lexicografie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ; ishll@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx ;
gillesmaurice.deschryver@xxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2012 1:36 PM
Subject: [euralex] Re: End of print dictionaries at Macmillan
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,
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)
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:
