The world's largest publisher of scholarly information just got bigger.
Oxford University Press (OUP) is publishing its core language and subject reference dictionaries online for the first time, creating what could be the largest general knowledge source on the Web.
Now, this centuries-old collection of illustrious reference works will be available to anyone with an Internet connection -- if they can afford the annual subscription fees.
"It will offer a new global standard for reference across the Internet, and in the process make accessible Oxford's massive reference assets," said Rob Scriven, managing editor of Oxford Dictionaries.
The Core Collection, the first database to be available as part of Oxford Reference Online, integrates over 100 dictionaries and reference titles across an array of subjects -- from astronomy to zoology -- into a single cross-searchable resource.
OUP decided to take its extensive collection online because "the technology is there to put books online, the content is there and the interest is large," said Rebecca Seger, sales and marketing director for OUP USA scholarly and professional reference group.
All that information comes at a price, however. Annual subscription fees will cost approximately $250 a year for schools and anywhere from $395 to just under $3,000 for multiple-user accounts such as libraries.
Institutions and organizations can also sign up for a free 30-day trial. More than 3,000 institutions around the world have signed up so far.
But will users pay for content when many general reference materials on the Web remain free?
Oxford University Press publishers think so.
The special rate for unlimited access to multi-volume reference works will attract schools that couldn't otherwise afford to buy all these books for their libraries, Seger said.
Consumers will also pay because of the editorial value of what they're getting, OUP representatives claim.
While surfers can easily get inaccurate, unverified information on the Web, each Oxford reference work is extensively checked and peer-reviewed by top scholars in the field to ensure quality before publication.
This lengthy approval process "makes the information in the book something that you can trust," Seger said.
"There is a great deal of free information on the Web, but Oxford Reference Online offers reference material that is of the highest quality that is easily searchable -- with the ability to cross-search from any word -- all in one location," Scriven agreed. "Nothing similar is offered free on the Web."
What's more, new and revised material will be continually added to works already available on the service. So roughly every six months, when a new edition of a book is ready, it will be updated on the site.
Some 60,000 pages (or 40 million words) from 100 titles have been digitized so far. The company hopes to publish 300 digitized titles (or over 130 million words) by the end of the decade, including multi-volume reference works.
The ORO site will soon include bigger reference books with longer entries, such as The Oxford Companions. Eventually, the site will offer subject-specific portals for topics such as art, history, religion and languages.
Other publishers are making the transition from free to fee.
Last year, Britannica.com started charging customers $50 a year to access the full text of the Encyclopaedia Britannica online.
Oxford Reference Online follows the launch of the Oxford English Dictionary in March 2000 as part of the dictionary's first complete revision in its 120-year history.
The OED Online charges approximately $550 per year for a single subscription and a base price of $795 for multiple users.
Keeping the OED updated is enormously expensive.
"The OED Online is more than a dictionary," Scriven said. "It is an enormous history of the language, consulted daily by many scholars, but less frequently by more general users."
While OED's yearly subscriptions will never come close to covering the $55 million it cost to revise the dictionary, the revenue has financed putting the work online, said ORO project director David Swarbick in the UK journal, Information Management Report.
So far, almost all subscriptions have been renewed, said Juliet New, spokeswoman for Oxford Reference Online.
The financial success of the OED online gave OUP "the go-ahead to put more reference material online," New said.
Project directors believe that Oxford Reference Online will complement OED online. They also say that these sites may complement offline materials, rather than cut into print sales.
"It's not just an e-book site," Seger said. "We will add as much content as our customers demand."
Oxford Reference Online cost well over $1.5 million to set up. Still, project directors insist they will be able to turn a profit in the next four years.
Oxford's online offerings will have to compete with reference materials that are available elsewhere on the Web for free.
One service, xrefer, offers titles from Oxford University Press and more than 20 other publishers on the Web free of charge. The site launched xreferplus as a service for libraries last December and is successfully selling subscriptions to thousands of libraries in the U.S., UK and Australia.
"Our view is that librarians want to choose reference books across publishers," said Daryl Rayner, marketing director for xrefer. "No single publisher covers the full range of titles. Just as Amazon.com stocks books from many publishers, book lovers choose to go there rather than to a single publishers bookshop."
Other sites that have made the transition from free to fee have struggled to achieve profitability.
Britannica.com cut staff last March as part of its strategy to focus on subscription-based services. The site experienced a 68 percent drop in traffic over the past year, according to Betty Yeh, an e-commerce analyst for Nielsen/NetRatings.
"It's definitely been hit hard," Yeh said.
"The key turning point right now is to target the right demographic that is going to pay," Yeh said. "That is going to be a bit of a challenge for Oxford."
"They need to get an online presence but not cannibalize their print offerings. By offering subscriptions online they could do both."
Oxford publishers hope that their venture will succeed where others have failed.
"All we can really say at this stage is that our actual and potential customers seem happy with the subscription model of ORO, and that we shall work closely with our customers as publishing technologies change and the needs of the student and scholarly communities develop," Scriven said.
Although it's difficult to predict whether ORO's subscription model will thrive, it's clear that many envision a future for scholarly publishing online.
"While no one at Oxford foresees the demise of the book, the future of reference works is undoubtedly on the World Wide Web," Swarbick said.
