Hi all -- I'm very interested in Dictionary Finale by Richard Osterlind. In general, Richard's mentalism effects are fabulous, but the write up of this effect on http://osterlindmysteries.com and video produced to show it on youtube are seemingly at odds in having the spectator choose a word. I'd appreciate a clarification.

The website says: A FREELY-SELECTED WORD -- "A freely-selected word is found to be missing from a legitimate dictionary! The mentalist directs the spectator to look inside the back cover and there he finds an “errata” slip explaining there is an error in the dictionary and that very word was left out!"

The video on the other hand has the spectator look at the last word on the last page of a book -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uylTzRISurc

So which is correct. IMHO if the spectator has to look at the last word of the last page of the book -- I'm asking myself, that's dumb... because the magician will undoubtedly know beforehand the word that the spectator will "choose."

It's all in how you present the book. If you just hand them a book, and say "go to page 46 and look at the 3rd word of the 11th line", of course they're going to suspect you already know something.
But this is not how a mentalist would present his/her books.

The video starts off in the middle of a full routine. So what you are seeing at the very beginning is just a little out of context. We didn't actually see how the book was presented/selected.

I have faith that Richard knows what he's doing.

Absolutely.
His years of experience and quality teaching speak for him. I believe this product is no different.