The Oxford English Dictionary has a reputation as the best, most comprehensive dictionary in the English speaking world. If asked, most people would agree that it has been geared more for academics than regular folks. That reputation doesn’t sit well with the new chief editor, Michael Proffitt, who believes that the dictionary still has a place in today’s modern and technologically driven age.
Despite the fact that Google definitions may well be more popular now than even web dictionaries like Dictionary.com, Proffitt says that dictionaries’ “time has come.” This interesting news came from Bustle in their article, “The Oxford English Dictionary’s New Chief Editor Wants the Dictionary to Stay Relevant.”
We live in the age of information. Access to almost any text, image, audio clip or video is at our fingertips. However, sorting that information is the challenge and key, the organizing principle to what drives search results. In this information-based, real-time society we live in, we have come to expect findability. More and more, technology is making it possible.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.
