It doesn't seem right -- at all -- that the Oxford English Dictionary may never again be reprinted on paper. But it seems like that's the direction in which we're headed. Virginia Heffernan had an entertaining piece about the issue in last Sunday's New York Times. Here's a taste:

"For some reason, the prospect of a Web-only O.E.D. made me nervous. Talking on the phone with Jesse Sheidlower, editor at large for the Oxford English Dictionary, I fished for reassurance. 'Um, are you even just going to print out the new dictionary, like on your laser printer or at Kinko’s or something? Just to have a hard copy?' I asked.

'I’m not sure we have printed it out,' he replied coolly. 'In any case, we’ve only finished from volume ‘M’ to ‘quit shilling.’ We have about 20 years’ more work to do revising and adding entries. Who knows what will happen with technology in 20 years? We certainly don’t.'

Jeez. I don’t either. I don’t even know what a 'quit shilling' is. But while The New York Times and other newspapers have refrained from rash decisions about their print editions, the Oxford English Dictionary — staid, right? — has already shaken off the shackles of print and said cheerio (“a parting exclamation of encouragement”) to books! The stab I felt was sharper than nostalgia. It was fear"