Oxford English Dictionary 'will not be printed again'

[Rumil]

I agree that books are still the best way to read,

but as for the Oxford English Dictionary, well, it consists of 21,000 pages in 20 volumes and costs over 650 pounds, so more of a consideration for the larger libraries and insitutions. I don't see any plan to discontinue the Shorter or Concise dictionaries.

I think Douglas Adams put it best-

In many of the more relaxed civilizations on the Outer Eastern Rim of the Galaxy, the Hitchhiker's Guide has already supplanted the great Encyclopaedia Galactica as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom, for though it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects. First, it is slightly cheaper; and secondly it has the words DON'T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover.

The reason why it was published in the form of a micro sub meson electronic component is that if it were printed in normal book form, an interstellar hitch hiker would require several inconveniently large buildings to carry it around in.