meta

[Victor Steinbok]

In my present financial (and academic) state, I was gratified to find
out that the local library had a connection to the mega-local library
that had the OED subscription. It required an electronic ID and dealing
with proxies, but that's a far smaller price to pay than individual
subscription. And the same source also includes the archives for one of
the local papers (Boston Globe), a partial NYT archive, and EAN + other
historical US info. Many local public libraries have similar
arrangements and their electronic resources are severely underutilized.
So it's a good deal for the OED (they still get their pound of flesh),
relatively good deal for the local libraries (the cost burden is
distributed through the entire chain and is not as heavy as it would
have been for individuals), and independent "scholars" are happy. Of
course, once you get outside the US, things are not so simple and the
subscriptions are largely restricted to selected academic institutions.

     VS-)

On 11/1/2010 2:32 AM, Paul Frank wrote:
> Thanks Jesse. You're talking me into forking out the money for a
> subscription to the online edition, because half the time I don't find
> what's hidden somewhere in the paper edition of the OED (and I do know
> the alphabet). I guess that ".. oh look! A puppy!" is also in the OED
> as a convenient phrase (or meme, if you will) to indicate a short
> attention span. My favorite sign from this weekend's rally was carried
> by a New Yorker: "Americans for ... oh look! A puppy!" - which speaks
> volumes about the attention span of today's electorate and the media
> that feeds it news and pseudo-news.
>
> Paul

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org