View Full Version : Keep or get rid of Encylopedia Brittanica?
Right before my daughter was born, about 26 years ago, we got a set of Encyclopedias........thinking they would be great for the kids to learn from. Then came the computer age. They almost seem like important antiques to me (but then lots of things do!) Any suggestions as to what to do with them? Keep them? Donate to a library.........and would a library even want them? Use them for kindling?? I just have this uneasiness about getting rid of them........but I feel that way about everything, and that's what's gotten me into a mess with too much stuff!
Also.....I think we stopped updating sometime in the 90's......so there's lots of stuff not included in them.
Thanks for your suggestions.
GET RID OF THEM.
If it makes you feel better, call the library. The "may" want them for a library sale but highly unlikely. They might have other suggestions. You dont need the old info and your kids dont need the old info. Information and details about the world have changed so much with the 26 years, that it would be confusing at best to read them.
Simplemind
2-25-11, 5:09pm
Let me start by saying that I am all for decluttering. I live for it. On the other hand I have a fondness for old globes, my out of date atlas and the encyclopedias that my mom scrimped to buy for me. I read them front to back. I was the worlds biggest book worm and still have many books from my childhood.
Someplace there is a person who is begging for your collection along with a big stack of National Geographics :0)
My church library had three sets of outdated encyclopedias I got rid of when I became librarian. The public library didnt' want them - naturally they only have current ones - but the Friends of the Library took them for their book sale. They took the National Geographics too.
My late FIL got us a real deal on a full set -- $ 35.00. They took up valuable shelf space in the garage for several years.
But we found our dd's never used them. Was it they didn't like going into the cold garage, to get to them - maybe! Or was it just easier to look it up on the computer, and print off a page of interest? It was the latter. I re-gifted them back to the thrift store!
We keep lots of books because they are classics. Not that we read them, but because they are classics - don't even get me started on the DVDs.
Dump them.
When I called my local library about donating books, they said old text books, encyclopedias really aren't wanted.
If they are pretty, the only good thing they can be used for is filler in large bookshelves.
In the end, since they are made out of paper - call your local recycling center and ask if you can bring them in or even dump them in your recycling bins. That will probably not feel good, but so would keeping them forever.....
Well, I am going to offer a contrasting opinion. We decluttered and got rid of our World Book encyclopedia and every week , we regret doing so. While some knowledge has changed, basics have not. DH used to enjoy looking up the history of something way back or the meaning and impact of another item. He cannot do this anymore. He also used to enjoy just roaming through them when he had a moment.
If he or I want to research something, I have to stop what I am doing, activate the computer, spend time sorting through all kinds of links to find the exact answer to my question. EG - What do sloths eat? Where do they live?
If anyone is still enjoying them, keep them.
Soapbox warning!!:devil::idea:
Now I am going to add something that many will disagree with, I am sure. The knowledge online is only as good as your connection. If you have no power - no info, if you lack funds to pay for a connection - no knowledge, if you move around, you can move books but not the connection as easily.
We are so dependent as a society on all our knowledge online, I find it scary.
I attended a workshop where the professor was talking about the changes in info distribution and the changes in the brain and basic knowledge we all carry with us.
In the olden days, history, genealogy, culture, survival skills were passes along using oral history. The brains developed to store all this info. Reaearch indicated that the info was very accuratelytransmitted through generations.
With the Reformation came the printed work for storing and transmitting the same info. People could carry this around, compare and share.
With broadcast including telegraph, radio and TV, we lost that storage since the info passed along was little snippets of sound bites but little context, history or storage. Our brains changed dramatically as well as our sense of ourselves, our connection to the past and survival strategies.
With the digital world, everything is supposedly online but one has be able to first connect, then to sort out what is true from a lot of fiction and hyperbole, our brains changed again and we have lost a sense of who we are and our survival skills. Based on many countries's including the US abilities and efforts to manipulate the internet, societies are vulnerable to having doctored info, pure garbage spread as absolute truth with serious risk of brainwashing.
If you truly believe that the internet cannot be manipulated, check out Wikileaks that takes a diplomat's musings out of context and risks all efforts at international mediation. The US and its Patriot Act has made every email subject scrutiny and certain words will impact your chances for employment and even a visit from the regulatory bodies.:0!
Stpping off my soapbox
Thanks everyone,
Razz.....that's sort of why I've been keeping them. I don't have complete faith in the electronic world. I'll have to think about this for awhile longer before I decide!
Oh I agree with you razz that electronic information isn't the end all or be all.
But the OP gave no indication that she USES these things, she talking abotu an emotional connection. They seem to be just more physical stuff that she cannot part with.
I've been meaning to buy a new world atlas, in paper form, to replace our 25 year old one because it's something we use 3 -4 times each year. Our computer is upstairs and it's not handy, and when we use the atlas it is usually because we are talking abotu something in the morning newspaper. I want a cheap paperback atlas, probably around $20.00.
We had the same conflicting desires several years ago. After much angst, we finally got rid of them. I'm happy to report that once done, we haven't missed them.
I know it's hard, but I would probably let them go, too. A lot of articles are probaby outdated now, and you can find just about any information you need online.
Maybe if you got rid of them then you could go to the library and use theirs. Maybe they've kept theirs up to date.
Or I wonder if it's possible to update the ones you've got.
How much has changed the last 26 years? I've used mine in the last month to look up giraffes, the Tropic of Capricorn, and to find out how and why Hawaii became a state. I used a set from the 80's for the first 2, the article about Hawaii was pretty vague. I looked up Hawaii in my 1911 set and was amazed at the article.
I could not be organized if I kept things like those encyclopedias.
The library ain't gonna want them ;) I suppose they could be interesting to keep to see the state of the world at the time. Otherwise, if you really don't want them, make good use of them in another way - recycle them as crafts if you can!
Maybe I could make birdhouses out of them? haha
Well, along with all the adult encylopedias, we got a whole set of Compton's children encyclopedias and a bunch of kids books like Treasure Island, Heidi, etc. The kids books might be better received somewhere.
When we first got all these, we thought we were doing such a fantastic thing for our kids. Little did we know the computer would come along.
I remember reading the World Books when I was young, and doing ALL my homework projects from that. Now, kids have the whole world of knowledge at their fingertips.
I still have the Brittanica set my parents scrimped and saved to get me in 1974.
My daughter used it a fair amount when she was younger, but since she's been old enough to use the computer, I don't think anyone has touched them for a few years. I probably should retire them, I think the computer age has made them nearly obsolete, even if they were this year's edition.
We had an older set - I put them on freecycle and they were picked up pretty quickly by homeschoolers.
That's a good idea creaker. Thanks.
i donated many books like that to my kids' art program at their high school. It may seem a waste but they made these fabulous art books from pasting some pages together, doing decoupage on the cover, etc. It was an interesting way to use the books!
Or, if you recycle them, at least the paper will be used to make something else. Less waste than just throwing them away.
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