Encyclopaedias and their successors

Tim Carmody argues that Britannica didn't fall specifically to Wikipedia but, more generally, to the PC, as the tool parents buy to enhance their children's prospects. Wikipedia simply administered the final blow. Some nice musings on Britannica and reference tools generally as domestic status objects: Britannica sold $250 worth of books for $1500; apparently the books were rarely opened. (But at least, when opened, more use than the leather bound phone books filmed as Dumbledore's spell books.)

[via StatusQ]