Lew, RobertDe Schryver, Gilles-Maurice2015-01-282015-01-282014-12Lew, R & De Schryver, G-M 2014, 'Dictionary users in the digital revolution', International Journal of Lexicography, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 341-359.0950-3846 (print)1477-4577 (online)10.1093/ijl/ecu011 untranslatedhttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/43468This contribution examines the digital revolution in lexicography from the perspective of the dictionary user. We begin with an observation that in the information age the status of the dictionary is changing, and so are patterns of user behaviour, with general internet search engines encroaching on the grounds traditionally reserved for lexicographic queries. Clearly, we need to know more about user behaviour in the digital environment, and for this we need to harness user research, to find out how the increasingly flexible and adaptive lexical reference tools of the future need to behave to best accommodate user needs. We summarize the existing findings and show in what ways digital dictionaries are already able to serve users better than their paper predecessors. The challenge to produce efficient and effective dictionaries is best seen in the context of dictionary users’ reference skills, which now tend to overlap with digital literacy. We conclude with a possible vision of the future.en© 2014 Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in International Journal of Lexicography. following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version International Journal of Lexicography, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 341-359, 2014. doi : 10.1093/ijl/ecu011 is available online at : http://ijl.oxfordjournals.org.Dictionary usersDigital revolutionLexicographyPostprint Article