Saturday, July 14, 2012

Encyclopedias

A couple of weeks ago we went out to the garage sales and I found a serious bargain.  A very nice lady was selling a full set of World Book encyclopedias for $1.50.  This is the same set that we had in my house as I was growing up.  Possibly the same edition.  The FP Gal wasn't sure it was a good purchase but for that small an amount I could hardly go wrong. 
The nice lady told me that she had offered the set to each of her children and they all refused.  It's not hard to figure out why.  If I have question about a subject I go to Wikipedia or maybe just Google for an answer.  Someday when I have a smart phone I'll be able to check them out anywhere I can get decent phone service.  So why but a set of very heavy books?
I remember times when I was young when I'd look something up.  Sometimes I'd just page through and see what kind of interesting things I would run across.  And I want my kids to have that same joy.  Also, I'm very much looking forward to when they can read so when they ask me a question I can say, 'What does the Encyclopedia say?'.  Working with bound research materials is a skill that everyone should have.  That will be a challenge for the Google generation.
We already looked at the article on 'flowers' and I had her look at the one on 'flags'.  I might tie that one in with the Olympics in a few weeks . . .

2 comments:

DD4 said...

A heck of a bargain! Your thoughts on this idea are good and I'm happy you bought them. I'm sure they'll be a good tool for your family.

Alfred T. Mahan said...

An excellent idea, Peder; while Wiki is a good *starting* point, the vast majority of scholars won't take it as a research source on its own.

It's simply too unreliable a source, due to its...flexibility, shall we say?