Encyclopedias

encyclopedias in print are obsolete. huge financial contribution to something that is outdated immediately. I remember collecting encyclopedias from ralphs supermarket back in the day. It was when the first Bush was in white house. Six months later he was out and I remember writing the ending date of his presidency in the encyclopedia. Now there are online databases to access so the information is updated. Speaking of updated, my daughter was talking about planets last night and I asked her how many there are. She is not quite there yet but she asked me and I didnt know what to tell her!

I just did a quick search and couldn't find any current, hard copies of encyclopedias (unless you were looking for antiques). They appear to be all online.

Nah. No need, like when we were kids.

Usually book drives and sales don't even accept encyclopedia sets anymore.

Truly dinosaurs!

A children's dictionary? Sure.

I would not suggest it. Information changes so rapidly and it's so much easier to access virtually. My mom still has two sets of Encyclopedias from when we were kids and I keep telling her to get rid of them! They still talk about the USSR! I'm still in favor of real books, don't get me wrong, but in cases like these, I feel they aren't necessary. I would maybe stock up on some other book resources like you did with the animal encyclopedia and go for other type of things like that.

You could also think about getting her a subscription to a magazine like National Geographic Kids or Time for Kids so that she still learns how to read for information but it's current and not permanent.

I remember we had a nice set of encyclopedias when I was younger too. I used them all the time for school.

I think you're better off just letting your daughter use the internet and the library for her research.

internet for everything. thats what i used. I had to put all links i used and page number of the link if it had more then one "page" to it. its easier and you can get more info. enclycapedias go outdated so easily that you could
NEVER keep up with it

I grew up with a set of Encyclopedia's as well.

Our daughter is 17 and will enter her Senior year next year. She has more than likely never seen a set of encyclopedias.

I would never spend the money on hardback encyclopedia's.

First, they would already be outdated when you get them,

Second, with the advancement of the internet and ability to research online... it would be a waste of money in my opinion.

Along with running our company, I also sub at the elementary school where my daughter went for over 10 years now. The children are taught how to research online as early as K and most information gathered for projects are are found through internet research, online textbooks, and the virtual library. We do teach the children how to use a dictionary and we have several types..... student level, a bit more advanced, thesauras, etc.

We have weekly "station" work the children do and 1 station of the week usually involves using a dictionary or thesauras so they understand the basics of learning how to spell words and get meanings.

Dictionaries are updated often but if you wanted to get a hardback book of some sort, I would get a dictionary geared toward her level with pictures, descriptions, etc.

Enjoy her.... they grow up way too fast!

ETA: I just saw your SWH when I pressed enter. I think it is great she is learning how to utilize a laptop and desktop computer. A laptop is not "required" at our Senior High School but it is essential. The students who do not have laptops end up having to research in the library or at home. I'd say the majority of my daughter's Jr class of 1120 students have a laptop. They take them to school sometimes as well.

I can't remember if it was World Book or Britannica, but one of them announced that they are no longer making hard backed encyclopedias. There is so much on the internet and books use so many resources, that it is no longer profitable for them to continue making them.

Perhaps you can buy an online subscription instead.

Dawn

huge waste of time and money. Things change so rapidly, national borders, nation & city names, scientific knowledge, etc. A hard cover encyclopdia is outdated and obsolete by the time the book is published and bound.

Middle school and high school kids do almost all of their research online theses days. They are provided with trusted & respsected encyclopedic type websites and the rest is gleaned from other online sources. Think about it - if you're going to write a report on China any book more than a few years old will be just wrong!

And besides - what 5 year old would want encyclopedias? She does, however, know how to use a computer so maybe buy her a used tablet type computer for the same money encyclopedias would cost.

If you could find a company that still sells encyclopedias, I doubt they would be in business long enough to keep them updated. Last year, Encyclopedia Britannica ended its print edition after 244 years. It was too difficult to keep them updated in "print", so they went to online subscriptions. But, why pay for their version, when your daughter will have free access from school and at the public library. Your money would be better spent on a nice computer for the family, or put it into a college fund for your daughter.

The problem with the old form of Enclyclopedias is that the information in them becomes outdated. Countries change their names, noteworthy people that are still alive have more accomplishments, noteworthy people die, and even more things than that.

Any information you can research you can find easily on the internet. So in this day and age the old Enclyclopedias are no longer needed in their old printed format but electronically or digitally. Perhaps those companies offers a digital version of the old kind with multimedia perks and regular updates for a time without having to renew your subscription. It would be worth checking that out.

Also your local library may be a great resource still for research for your daughter.

I got a 3-year old set of encyclopedias from a local library for $100, about 10% of the original price. I have my kids use them all the time for research because unlike the internet, you get the information in a sweet and short format without having to weed through millions of websites. Plus, you can carry them to any room in the house, up in a tree or out to the hammock if the mood strikes you.

I used my mother-in-law's 50-year old set last Memorial Day to refresh my memory on details of the Civil War. She lives in a very small town, with no internet access, and if the encyclopedias hadn't been there, I wouldn't have been able to debate my 12-year old Civil War "expert" nephew.

Also, if you need to something as old fashioned as press leaves or flowers, you've gotta have something big and heavy to squash them between.

It's actually not possible. Britannica has officially halted publishing.

http://m.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/mar/13/encyclopedia-br...

My son is 9, and we do our research nearly 100% online. As do I (college student).

Wikipedia is a blurb, and not for serious research. We MAY use it as a jumping off point BUT

- US State Dept

- National Geographic

- That country's actual website

- Museums (NHM, Lourve, British museum, Smithsoneon, and HUNDREDS of other museums are all online... Exhibits only tip the iceberg... There are 10s of thousands of pages of research and articles online)

- Specialty Pages (CIA, FBI, WHO, CDC, Zooilogical Society, Anthropology society, NASA, US Civil War, Falklands War, Weyrhauser, Cocacola.... You name it and that govt. agency, NGO, or company has a website with constantly updating information)

- Journalistic Sites (AP, BBC, NYT, Al Jazeera, Bejiing Times, Seattle PI... There are THOUSANDS of legit journalistic sources online)

- Deep Science (Peer Review Database)

- first person sources AND orignial documents (thanks to Gutenberg and many universities... What scholars had to travel to see 20 years ago, and students could only read about those scholars experiences... Original source documents are now painstakenly scanned and online. Ditto voice and music archives.

- Lectures. UCLA, Oxford, and many other prestigious universities now publish entire courses online complete with lectures, texts, etc. I 'took' a class on Islamic pottery a few months ago just by downloading the files from Oxford. No registration or money required.

- Lectures. TED Talks.

The list, quite literally, goes on.

If you want to invest in something that may be valuable, though considered obsolete...get a set of Brittanica. This is the last year they will be printed...forever.

There are a few small publishing houses that still do print encyclopedias, but I'm guessing now that the granddaddy of them all is now fully joining the technological age, the only hard cover encyclopedias you will be able to find will be old out of print copies that will surely become very expensive collectibles.

Already, some old volumes are priced in the thousands at auction houses.

Are these useful for research? Yes, depending on how you use them. Keep in mind most of the information will always remain historically relevant in the context in which the information was written...much like a history textbook. Of course they're not good for current events information and maybe new discoveries won't be reflected, but the information that is published, will be historically accurate. We don't toss out text books in school that show maps and countries that existed in different periods of history because that information is relevant for that time period.

I also want to laugh when people rely on solely the internet, which has a lot of inaccuracies. Especially wikipedia, which if you know how to add or update information to the site, you can alter the information as you see fit. There is alot of sabotage on sources like that with political information for instance. There are people who are paid to filter and alter sites like this. Makes you wonder about history being revised and just how accurate is the information your kids are getting these days. I think now more than ever, people need to know how to do REAL research because there is so much false and bad information on the internet. Not to mention the media these days is very guilty of sloppy sourcing. I can't get over the number of liable lawsuits and retractions on a day to day basis among the big mainstream media sources out there. It's sad, no one takes time to check their facts.

Anyhoo, old encyclopedias are still relevant in my opinion and definitely are great treasures of history (whether they are p.c. or up on current events or not) as they reflect the thinking of the era in which they were printed.