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) .
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