My kid doesn't remember the Encyclopedia Britannica

[cantdrv55]

Ever since he could read, the web has been around. When he first started doing research for school, the materials he used were either online or on CD like Encarta. Now, he Wikis everything almost. He's not the only one. His friends think Wikipedia is the bomb. I wonder if my old Encyclopedia Britannica set is worth anything?

[johnco]

I still have a complete set from 1955. I went thru every one page by page before I learned to read and several times after I could. and I read every encyclopedia at every friend's house I visited. my head was so full of facts all jumbled together it hurt.

[dd74]

How about door-to-door encyclopedia salesmen. Anyone remember them?

I think they faded out with milkmen.

[Schumi]

How old is your son?

I was in school during that transition time.... in the classrooms there were still encyclopedias.. in 1st grade we got to go to a computer lab where we played math games on old Apple II's. In 4th grade, in a gifted class, we got to use windows 3 and Encarta on CD... and then in 6th grade we got the internet- a 14.4K line shared between every computer in the school.



When I graduate high school there was a computer lab with about 40 computers in the library, all with high speed internet.


Now... there are computers in almost every classroom with high speed internet.


All in 15 years.

[on2wheels52]

I won a set in 1960 (it was second prize, I don't remember what first was). I don't think my son ever used it. We donated it a couple of years ago.
Jim

[legion]

I did my first research paper completely electronically in 1995 senior year of high school. The internet at that point really didn't have much useful information (mostly personal web pages and porn), so I used Lexis/Nexis. I had to print out copies of all the articles for my teacher to review.

In college I did use some online sources, but it was mostly magazine articles from the websites of trade journals.

[gr8fl4porsche]

I'm 42 and only took one computer class up through college.

There was a computer lab in HS but no one was really interested in it because they didn't do much. A simple green screen with text was all it had.

In college we all had to take a basic programming class - that was really useful. Learning to program Fortran 77 to add up a string of numbers has proven itself very valuable in my career.

I did all my research for papers and such at the library digging through books. There were computers in the library in college but they were used to find the right microfiche article, they did not contain the actual article. The internet did not enter my life until the mid 90's.

I only remember the encyclopedias at home when I was in grade school. After that it was all about specific books or articles. Encyclopedias have been dead and gone for 30 years.

[ruf-porsche]

The electronic encyclopedia is on it way out. I heard Microsoft will no longer update Encarta.

My kids don't even know what 45s and LPs reords are for and never used a cassette player. They do know how to rip a cd and text message. Even I don't text message.

[Schumi]

Originally Posted by ruf-porsche

The electronic encyclopedia is on it way out. I heard Microsoft will no longer update Encarta.

My kids don't even know what 45s and LPs reords are for and never used a cassette player. They do know how to rip a cd and text message. Even I don't text message.

I remember an article about MS not continuing with Encarta. Encarta now has something like 42,000 articles... whereas Wikipedia has 2.7 million.


I just listening to an INXS tape in my car the other day (Welcome to Wherever You Are). No CD player there. Sounded just like it did when I was a younger.

And two weeks ago I dug through several crates of old vinyl I used to listen to as a kid. The music experience just isn't as 'cool' anymore... instead of getting out a record and sliding it under the needle, wearing some huge Sony 80's headphones... now I get on youtube and click a button (and get treated with sound quality way worse than LPs, and worse than some good tape decks even.)

[vash]

Originally Posted by cantdrv55

. I wonder if my old Encyclopedia Britannica set is worth anything?

maybe 10-12 bucks at the local white paper recycling place?? my poor mom as two sets. the junior set, and the adult set. the adult set, has a great section on SEX. i looked it up when i was 12 years old. i bet money it is better than what your kid can find on wiki. ahhahah.

[jyl]

Encyclopedias are obsolete and are vanishing. Oh well. Of all the obsolete things that are vanishing, I'm not going to mourn over encyclopedias.

My kids are quite unfamiliar with reference books, be they dictionaries, atlases, encyclopedias, conjugation guides, etc. But they read prose books all the time, which is far more important.

[vash]

cantdrv...do you think your kid knows the dewey decimal system?

[onlycafe]

i was making black powder when i was ten, thanks to the britannica

[vash]

Originally Posted by onlycafe

i was making black powder when i was ten, thanks to the brittanica.

hahahhahahah! awesome!

[URY914]

We were a World Book family. We kept our set in the den. I used to copy my reports from them word for word as a kid. They would also issue a World Book Annual and it was cool because it has an auto racing section. It would list the WDC and the Indy 500 winner and the LeMans winner.

The good 'ol days.....

[masraum]

I had a World Book encyclopedia and about 10 or 20 of the annuals and the annual supplements. I always loved it as a kid and used it as a source for plenty of school work.

[TechnoViking]

I volunteered at the local library a while back in their book donations area. Basically, we sorted out the books that are desirable for the library, those that could be sold to raise money and those that went into the garbage bin.

Guess where ALL the encyclopedias go?

[porsche4life]

I used encyclopedias for my report this year. Of course where I graduated is kinda old school. I mean we have computers but the teachers require at least one encyclopedia source.(not Wiki)

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by masraum

I had a World Book encyclopedia and about 10 or 20 of the annuals and the annual supplements. I always loved it as a kid and used it as a source for plenty of school work.

Same here...

And how did we manage to survive without cell phones, texting, and video games?

And I got my black powder recipe out of there too!

[legion]

Originally Posted by onlycafe

i was making black powder when i was ten, thanks to the britannica

I was a late-bloomer, I was 14.

That, and it took me years to track down some potassium nitrate.

Oh, and don't mix it vigorously with a mortar and pestle in your bedroom, it will ignite.