As of late, many people reside on-line, the place machine-generated content material has begun to pollute the Web with misinformation and noise. At a time when it is arduous to know what data to belief, I felt delight once I lately discovered that World Ebook nonetheless prints an up-to-date guide encyclopedia in 2023. Though the time period “encyclopedia” is now virtually synonymous with Wikipedia, it is refreshing to see such a large reference printed on paper. So I purchased one, and I will inform you why.

Based mostly in Chicago, World Ebook, Inc. first revealed an encyclopedia in 1917, and it has launched a brand new version virtually yearly since 1925. The corporate, a subsidiary of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, claims that its encyclopedia is “the one common reference encyclopedia nonetheless revealed at the moment.” My analysis appears to again up this declare; it is true even for different languages. Its fiercest competitor of yore, The Encyclopedia Britannica, ended its print run in 2012 after 244 years in print.

In a nod to our current digital age, World Ebook additionally presents its encyclopedia as a subscription service by the online. But it is the print model that mystifies and attracts my fascination. Why does it nonetheless exist?

“As a result of there may be nonetheless a requirement!” Tom Evans, World Ebook’s editor-in-chief, advised Ars over e mail.

At the moment, up-to-date data flows freely because of the Web. It is solely a Google search away. Many individuals depend on Wikipedia, which is a nonprofit collaborative useful resource, for reference functions. Regardless of that, some folks and organizations apparently nonetheless purchase paper encyclopedias. Evans mentioned that gross sales of the print version are “within the 1000’s” and that World Ebook all the time prints simply sufficient copies to fulfill demand.

A World Ebook rep advised Quartz in 2019 that the print encyclopedia bought largely to colleges, public libraries, and homeschooling households. At the moment, Evans says that public and college libraries are nonetheless the corporate’s main prospects. “World Ebook has a loyal following of librarians who perceive the significance of a common reference encyclopedia in print kind, accessible to all.”

As a child, our household owned a 1968 version of World Ebook that I relied on for varsity reviews and initiatives all the best way till my highschool commencement in 1999, though I briefly used Microsoft Encarta on CD-ROM and a CompuServe encyclopedia within the Nineteen Nineties. On the time, even with digital references, instantaneous, up-to-date data did not appear as essential. We had been nonetheless largely working on the pace of paper. Whereas that idea appears international to us in our present world, there was a sure sort of consolation in that slowness.

Talking of gradual, a paper encyclopedia set actually cannot run away from you. Again within the day, our household’s encyclopedia set took up a big devoted shelf in our household room. Similar to my outdated 1968 version, the brand new print version of World Ebook is a bodily hefty reference. The 2023 model spans 17,000 articles unfold over 14,000 pages in 22 volumes. The corporate says it options over 25,000 pictures, illustrations, diagrams, and maps.

All this paper-bound content material cannot presumably come low-cost, you would possibly suppose. And, after all, you are proper. At a time when most data involves us totally free on-line (with strings hooked up, after all), it is simple to have sticker shock on the $1,199 retail worth for the 2023 version of World Ebook, though customers would possibly sometimes discover it for as little as $799 on Amazon (to check, the web subscription prices $250 per 12 months). Earlier editions can be found for a lot decrease costs.

I do know it could appear bizarre to choose the print version since you may get the identical content material within the on-line model in a space-saving and moveable format. However with the paper model, the World Ebook will all the time be yours. It may well’t be edited stealthily or taken down if the corporate wants the server area or goes out of enterprise.

So I took the plunge.