Britannica Online History, SB1

Sidebar: From about 1983 the Sales Promotion department at Britannica made available to the field salespeople a sheet of responses to use with prospects who suggested that they might defer purchasing the encyclopedia until it became available in an electronic version. The talking points, or "rebuttals," evolved over the years to take into account new developments in digital publishing, such as the CD-ROM. Thus, from the perspective of the talking sheet and its authors, technological progress was the emergence of increasingly complex and useful things that were impossible. Also noteworthy in this document is the preposition used in the title.

ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA VS THE COMPUTER

One of the questions we are most frequently asked, by both our own people and outsiders, is "When will Britannica be available on a computer?" The answer we give is "Not for a long time." Here's why:
1. In spite of the many rapid technological advances in the field of home computers, none of the popular models available now have a large enough memory to store all of Britannica. We did a calculation recently that showed that we would need 100 - 200 floppy disks just to hold our Index?
2. You could put the encyclopaedia on a large mainframe computer and allow the home computer user to access it via telephone. This is very expensive. In addition, most systems of this sort that are available today are very cumbersome and difficult to use. They are "menu-driven" and are tricky to manipulate. It is easy to lose your place. You need to know a great deal about the specific system in order to be able to use it. A book is a lot easier to use and is more cost effective at this time.
3. Because of limitations of the screen, you can read only a few words at a time on each screen. Trying to read an article is difficult and disjointed.
4. The main reason most people give for wanting a computerized encyclopaedia is to be able to find things quickly. A computer does, indeed, search and sort information very well. But most systems available today use the "key word" search. For example, if you want to look up "ORANGE", you will get back a listing of every place the word appears, whether or not it is a significant entry, and regardless of whether it refers to the color ORANGE, ORANGE County, California, the fruit, or William of Orange. It is then your responsibility to determine which, if any of these, refers to the item you are seeking.
Britannica has already done all that work for you. Our indexers have read every article, analyzed what they read, and have determined exactly which entries should be in the Index. They have separated the colors from the fruits, etc., and have grouped the references accordingly. They have eliminated trivial references, so that when you follow an entry you can be sure you'll find a piece of relevant and significant information.
The technology to provide this kind of Index in the home today is too expensive. Until new ways are developed, we can provide a better, easier-to-use encyclopaedia in printed form, than in any computerized version. We will not change our delivery method from the printed page to the electronic form until we are sure that it is the most efficient way for our readers to receive it.