Do You Keep Your Encyclopedias Or/and Dictionary?

I do, I even have a lot of my old textbooks. I plan on cleaning many of them out this week though, but it is so hard to part with them.

I know you can look up things online, but it is so interesting to look up words that have fallen into antiquity and out of common usage, you can't look up words and phrases you've never seen before, you know? I want my children to appreciate that and not totally rely on the computer.

I'm a bit of a bibliophile, I suppose. I love old, vintage books, all stacked up together and used in display.

Yes, and I actually have 2 sets in my classroom. It's amazing to me how many of my students (10th grade) choose to look information up in an encyclopedia rather than use their phones or textbooks.

YES.

As a child, we had many dictionaries and thesaurus' and encyclopedias.
I still have a couple of them.
One of my favorite dictionaries, as a child in elementary school, was about 9" thick. From my Parents. I remember the day my late Dad brought it home.
AND one of my favorite things to do as a child, was to read, the Dictionary.
I LOVED to do that. My sibling thought I was nuts.
But I loved to read the Dictionary and learned a lot from it.
So anyway, yes, I keep those couple of Dictionaries I had, from childhood. And yes, we do use it. Even my kids.
So it is not just decoration or collecting dust... it is an actual used, book.
And I still have that 9" thick Dictionary of mine.

And, I still have, the encyclopedia set, from my childhood. It was a real high end set, that my parents had gotten. And, it is priceless.
My kids like looking through it.
It is not just collecting dust.

We are book lovers.

I never bought encyclos myself so don't have them. But I do keep a dictionary. I make my kids use it to look up words. I actually think it is pretty said that kids now do not have the knowledge (you would be surprised) to look up basic things except to type in a search on the computer. What if the power is out or something else? I also make my kids learn to do math without their calculators. I am a mean mommy.

What are encyclopedias and dictionaries? Lol plus that gives you my answer!

We still use the encyclopedia. There is just something about the actual research of looking through a book. not the putting the name in the search bar but the looking through the book alphabetically. Kids don't do that anymore. It is sad. I love to read so that in turn made them big readers.

We also used it as a consequence when the kids were little. When they would be driving me nuts fighting they had to get an encyclopedia letter of their choice down. and copy a page. let me tell you that only happend a couple times. they hated copying it down. but it works on their attitude, their hand writing and their vocabulary lol. my kids could tell you anything you wanted to know about aardvarks by the time they were 7. but the wrestling really got toned down and that was what I was after.

If they have sentimental value, then by all means keep them. But if you mean them to be reference, beware. If your child needs a map of Russia, will he find the USSR? New information and political/social changes can make these obsolete.
As for the dictionary, there are changes here too. First of all, new words are added all the time (much to my chagrin; doh! is actually a word!) so that a child might not find something he seeks, and pronunciations also fall out of favor; for example, does anyone (except for me and Dan Rather) still pronounce 'harass' as HAR-es?
Just my take.

My encyclopedias have emotional value and that's all. I remember the excitement as a child for each volume to come out at our local supermarket. It was like collecting...a new volume evey week. I'd go through the store happily gazing at the colorful pictures. Guess what??? I'm going to finally throw them out, especially the ones my mother-in-law got from her friend. (I really don't like her friend.) Why? Encyclopedias are only good for entertainment anymore and some even contain outdated info. My son was never allowed to use them in school, because the school is preparing him for college and he has to learn how to find the research on his own. Encyclopedias make it too easy. I was never allowed to use them in school either. Colleges do not view encyclopedias as credible sources and definately not primary resources. Can't even use encyclopedias online and especially not Wikipedia for school. They are just taking up room looking pretty, unless you plan to read them for fun. I do keep the dictionaries, just in case the computer/electric is out. Our dictionaries have lots of info. like names and meanings, abreviations, symbols, etc. Sometimes our dictionaries give better definitions than the online ones and sometimes it's just quicker to look it up by hand instead of typing the word in.

We wanted to donate our Encyclopedia Brittanicas to the our local library...they don't take them...so we donated them to the clothes closet.

Dictionaries we keep!!

We do have a dictionary, but for the most part no we don't keep the other. Internet is our source.

I keep my reference books out. Occasionally I like to thumb through them and my 9 year old daughter will pick up a encyclopedia and browse. She just loves books. I believe it can be beneficial for kids to be familiar with many research methods. You never know where you might find that info you need.

I know what you mean about the dust though.

We have pulled out the dictionary on occassion while doing vocabulary and syllable homework. I also like to look up words I do not know so that one I would keep readily available.

We never owned a set of encyclopedias but I could see going to the internet in lieu of the books.

PS. I find it interesting how the English vocabulary has evolved. My dictionary is from college before technology existed. So if you look up words like "mouse" all you're going to get is the critter!

I don't know if you have young kids, but if you do, I would reccommend keeping them so you can teach them the skills of using the books properly!

Well, for one thing, if you ask my kids what my favorite book is, they will tell you it's the dictionary.
I have many, many different copies and some of them are quite old.

When my kids had vocabulary words or asked me how to spell something, they always heard the same thing....."Get the dictionary."
When they had to study something for a report, "Get the encyclopedia."
Now, I did allow them also to use the computer to get additional information, but I always made them turn to books first.
It's okay to be computer savvy, but I am shocked at the number of kids I know who can't even look something up in the phone book. They just google it.

To me, it's a shame. I think books are important. I think kids should know how to use reference materials other than just looking things up on the computer.

I even have some of my grandmother's shorthand books from when she was in high school. No one uses shorthand anymore.
They're pretty cool.

Just my opinion.

I still have my really nice big dictionary, but use it only once or twice a year. I'm hoping that my kids will use it once they start to read. As for encyclopedias... nope... I just donated a beautiful leather bound set that a neighbor gave me a few years ago. They had been her fathers and she didn't have room for them when he died. I wanted to keep them but I couldn't justify the three shelves worth of space they took up on the bookshelf.

I dispensed with the encyclopedias long ago - but they were bought second-hand from a garage sale, and one volume was missing (as you can guess, it was the volume that was always needed). My kids learned how to look up things on the computer pretty early.

The dictionaries I have kept. I love my 1940s two-volume complete dictionary. I can learn where a word came from and by what circuitous routes it came to be what it is today. There are modern words that aren't in those books, but it's a very small percentage of everyday vocabulary. I also use the online dictionary when I'm in a hurry, but it's not a replacement for "the real thing." There's quite a difference in dictionaries, because there's a difference in the standards and philosophies of the various publishers.

However, you also need to know that I'm a bookaholic. I could open a store.

Absolutely. And I make my GD use the dictionary instead of the internet to look words up. Every child should at least know how to use a dictionary and encyclopedia so I keep mine handy.

Too many corner are cut these days because of computers and digital clocks. Technology is fine, but I think everyone should learn to use the tried and true books just in case one night your internet service is down and you need to know something. It would be nice to know how to find it!

I have foreign-language dictionaries, but I don't have any others. Maybe pack them away, some day you can unpack them and look at them fondly.

Dictionaries live in our office. We don't own encyclopedias. I can't see the need for them. We own lots of books, classic and contemporary.