Too Much News to Print

It is the end of a long era for all of us who were raised using encyclopedias! Remember in school- the teacher assigned a paper to write and the first thing you did was open an encyclopedia to learn “all about” the subject of your assignment. It made things simple and it made you feel like you “really” knew what you were talking about! That was then- this is now. For the first time since 1768 Encyclopedia Britannica will not print that big, heavy, shelf of books. Britannica will exist in a digital form only. While you might think that this is a step back, it is actually a huge step forward. Physical copies are not being discontinued because of lack of use but rather because a digital copy can be updated constantly in real time. No more buying a set of books that is obsolete by the time it is printed. Not to mention all the wear and tear on your back! As on owner of thousands of books I can’t describe the hassle of moving my personal library. Today I could purchase many of those books on CD rom and move a good deal of my library in a tote bag! As we mark the end of printed encyclopedias consider on real fact- our knowledge is increasing so quickly that we need a data base of knowledge that can be updated with the click of a mouse. If I think of the news stories I have read in the past couple of weeks it is amazing- a fresh water lake below the ice of Antarctica, a tribe of natives that have never had contact with the modern world, two, yes two, new human fossils discovered that shed new light on evolution, new planets discovered, and the list goes on. In the information age there really is “too much news to print.” Children today are taught to access the most current information about our world and that information changes almost daily. So there will not be any encyclopedia salesman coming to your door. They, like many, have been replaced by computers. So what are we to do? Maybe for the first time in human history there really is too much to know. I guess that is why we live in the world of specialists- yes, you remember that if you have a pain in right thumb there is a specialist for that, and so it goes with every field of science and intellectual endeavor. The age of the “renaissance man,” a person who knows about everything is gone. The good news is that he has disappeared because of the great resources that we have. Jews have always cherished knowledge of any kind. Our love for our sacred literature is reflected in our love of secular knowledge. Today it is easier than ever to be a well educated Jew- the internet is a mine of Jewish knowledge as well as knowledge about the world around us. Be a good Jew- log on and learn something new today! This article appeared in the South Florida Jewish Journal and the Atlanta Jewish Times.