Pity the Poor Encyclopedia

Gary Price wrote in with an AP article about the challenges facing encyclopedia publishers. "At libraries, the volumes sit ignored for days on end as information-seeking patrons tap busily away at nearby computers…. In the age of the Internet, encyclopedias are gathering dust, and most families with young children don’t even consider buying the space-hogging printed sets anymore. Even digital versions struggle for attention."

March 8, 2004 by John Uncategorized 7

Daniel says:

March 8, 2004 at 12:52 am

Love encyclopedias ’cause they don’t boot up!
Encyclopedia use at libraries may be down, but I think they still make a good home reference tool (am I a geek?). We have a 1992 set of Encyclopedia Americana at home. Whenever we want to look something up, we find it much quicker to take the appropriate volume off the shelf, flip a few pages and find what we want most of the time. It’s easier to us than turning on our computer, waiting for our dialup connection to kick in, then going to a search engine and finding what looks to be an authoritative entry.

Hmm. Perhaps I am a library geek.

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slashgirl says:

March 8, 2004 at 7:31 am

Re:Love encyclopedias ’cause they don’t boot up!
If you’re a library geek, than I am too. We don’t actually own a set of encyclopedias, but really, I wouldn’t mind. I think I’d like a set of brittanica. If I did have a set, I would, in most cases, use it before the net. *G*

I adore reference type books–encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc. of any sort. I especially like dictionaries…I admit it, I sit there sometimes and “read” the dictionary. I’ll go to look up a word, and then think of another word, or see another word on the page that I don’t know or that interests me. This past Christmas, my brother gave me a gift certificate from the bookstore and that partially funded my purchase of the latest Merriam Webster’s Collegiate. *contented sigh* I like their website, too, but it’s just not the same as browsing the book…

When I go to a library I haven’t been to before, I always check out the reference section (along with my usual fave topic areas).

Guess that makes me a book and library geek! I wear those titles proudly.

s/

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exlibriscat says:

March 8, 2004 at 9:46 pm

Ecyclopedia Use in Libraries
I work at a large metropolitan public library’s central location, at the main reference desk. We have several sets of encylopedias available: current year volumes are for reference use, and past years’ volumes can be checked out.

Maybe they don’t get as much use as they did before the advent of the internet, but they are certainly heavily used here! Most of the volumes that can be circulated are usually out, and, during the school year, herds of kids can be seen using them every afternoon for homework assignments.

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Amke says:

March 9, 2004 at 12:00 am

Re:Ecyclopedia Use in Libraries
I constantly refer patrons (especially kids) to the World Book 2004 which we have up here in Reference at a large public library. It is a great starting place and/or background source!

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Samantha says:

March 9, 2004 at 12:30 am

Re:Encyclopedia Use in Libraries
I work at a community college and I often start people off with the encyclopedia entry for whatever they are researching. It’s an excellent starting point for them when they aren’t really sure what specifically about China they need to discuss in their report, or if their instructor wants them to compare apples and oranges (a fun assignment we got today).

Encyclopedias=good general info, nice starting point, quick and easy to use.

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Anna says:

March 10, 2004 at 12:27 am

My father does the same thing.
I can’t recall what dictionary he has, but it’s a huge volume with some color pictures. He likes to read through it before going to bed. I think he’s just trying to learn enough words to beat his mother at Scrabble.

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kctipton says:

March 10, 2004 at 2:58 am

Correction
This story ran in the Washington Post too, and they had this correction yesterday:

Correction: Disappearing Encyclopedias Story

The Associated Press
Tuesday, March 9, 2004; 2:40 PM

SAN JOSE, Calif. – In a March 8 story about encyclopedias in the Internet age, The Associated Press misspelled the name of a Web site geared for children’s research. It is FactMonster, not FactsMonster, which is a porn-related site.

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