Remember encyclopaedias?

When I was a child, having a set of encyclopaedias in the home was quite a status symbol.  Responsible parents turned themselves inside out to provide their kids with a set, to ensure that they had the best possible homework assistance at their fingertips.  The disadvantaged kids had to queue up at the library for their information.  We lucky owners were ranked according to whether we owned a set of Groliers (like ours), World Book, Funk & Wagnel, or the ultimate - Britannica.

I can still remember the powerful emotions I felt whenever I handled a volume  - as though all the mysteries of the world were there in my hands to be siphoned up and absorbed.

Now we have the internet.  Something we never could have imagined in those days.  And it's vast - with so many bells and whistles - and always up-to-date.  And now, even as a wrinkly senior, I feel the same thrill about the internet as I did with those encyclopaedias long ago. 

Our children grew up with Funk & Wagnel.  I remember the pangs when they had all moved on and I realized it was time to discard the dusty row of books from the top shelf.

Now I'm eyeing off a few other old faithfuls that have also had their day.  It's good to start scaling down on possessions - thinking ahead to the time when we will eventually have to pack up and move into more compact, aged accommodation.

I know I haven't opened my Reader's Digest Medical Adviser for a year or two.  Published in '84, it is now very definitely 'old hat'.  All my health related queries are answered so much better on-line.  I can see that other books like atlases, dictionaries, telephone directories, cook-books and various manuals will soon go the same way.

That's progress ... and it goes down well with me.

Comments

[Tjilpi]

"How are you going?" I said to a 75 year old yesterday.

"Getting there." Was the reply.

"But where is there at our age?" I asked.

-----------------------------------------------------
We had something called Everyman's Encyclopaedia. I was green with envy of those houses with Britannica. Although, once, I came across a household which had a set of Britannica and not a single other book in the house! I didn't feel so bad then; for my father had, almost, a University Library in his study. I knew Britannica had to be updated regularly, so those dusty old tomes ceased to impress me as much. Although I was impressed later when I got to meet Jack Smart, the Adelaide Philosopher, and author of the Britannica article on "Materialism" in the early '70s.

[Tabor]

Let us just hope that the Internet doesn't become compromised a decade from now when we are all dependent upon it. Also, make sure that you check a number of sites on stuff since there are 'just a few' inaccuracies out there.

[Kerrin]

My Mother had been bailed up by a door to door salesman of Encyclopaedia for most of the afternoon. When my father arrived home she told him to get rid of him. So he did in quick time, YES he purchased the books. Part of the deal was that you could send off for any information you needed for school projects etc. So the minute we even mentioned the word project my mother would be posting off a request. Bit slower than going to the www.
Thank you for your welcome back. Yes I will keep blogging, it will probably be about my photos, garden etc. Have started a new one that I think will suit what I have in mind. But I surpose the direction could change as it evolves.

[Alice]

When I was about seven my father purchased a set called 'Pictorial Knowledge'. There were 10 books in the set and I think I read just about every page. Some years later he was talked into buying Britannica, but it was just too exhausting to trawl through the many pages on each topic. My husband still has a 1963 set. I'd love to get rid of it although the top of the bookcase does come in handy! I think I'll have to start thinning out our collection of 'not opened for years' books - be it ever so surruptiously!

[pablo]

We had a set of World Book encyclopedias when I was growing up. I'm sure they saved many a homework assignment for our family. I know i got ideas for a few science fair projects from them.

When my own family came along, I thought it would be great to have them as a resources, so my parents gave them to me. Wow, they had not aged well. Much of the information in them was quite outdated, and the kids would look at them for the novelty, sometimes even laughing about what they would find. Now, of course, it's all done on the internet.

[Buck]

I thought about getting rid of my funk and wagnells but decided to keep them as they still come in handy at times as does all my various dictionaries I have.
As Tjilpi said in her comment the Britannica ones were far too expensive for me and I do have it on a disk but they certainly do look impressive certainly and I myself like reading books or Tomes; keep them is my advice.
Tjilpi is also correct about her comments about the net as they are not always accurate.
Interesting post Jude.

[Tjilpi]

Buck - I'm glad I didn't have to pay for the surgery for my instant sex change! I you have a look at my site you'll see that I am a fat grey haired old codger who is very interested in female anatomy (for that see my Emoblog post.)

[elsewhere]

We had the Britannica in a handsome set of custombuilt shelves. I did seriously contemplate whether I should read my way from A--Z to assuage my guilt at only dipping into them from time to time.

But from memory the World Book encyclopaedia was the ultimate status symbol at the time. I'm not exactly sure why; it may have been the colour pictures tho the anatomical slides in the EB were very engrossing.

[Account Deleted]

The Britannica did seem to take a dive when it switched to using the American foot-in-the-door sales technique. Sometimes there seemed to be no difference between the Mormons and the Britannica salesmen.

Jude, are you just having a blog-oliday? Or is something up??

[Account Deleted]

I have taken to using Wikipedia a bit. Articles vary a bit in quality - but so they did in Britannica.

[Chancy]

I use Google to look up anything and everything. And I sometimes use Yahoo. The only drawback is there is too much information and you have to wade through some rubbish to get to the gold.

For instance, my grown son was trying to convince me that vanilla comes fro orchids. I had a lively arguement with him and said no, vanilla comes from vanilla beans. I "googled" vanilla and lo and behold he was right.