The Wall Street Journal
October 1, 1999
Page One Feature
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.
Copyright © 1999 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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