In my family, we had The World Book Encyclopedia. I used it often for school reports, and sometimes just read at random about interesting topics like animals or dogs. I remember there were some pages that had acetate layers, so you could look, for instance, at parts of the body one layer at a time. My Mom still has this encyclopedia set at her home, and I still enjoy looking at it.
We also got a yearly annual from World Book, with updates on current events and new information from the previous year.
World Book is still around and published in both print edition and online resource -- visit World Book here. I found it heartening to know that this beloved encyclopedia is still around!
Did you have an encyclopedia set when you were growing up? What do you remember about it? I'd love to hear from you in the comments, below.
My husband and I were just talking about encyclopedias last night and what we did before Google and the internet. I remember researching for projects in grade school was all books. Nowadays kids don't pick up anything other than a technological device.....
ReplyDeleteMy family had (and still has) a wonderful set of encyclopedias. I used to read them just for fun, and we always used them for homework and class project. What a great throwback.
ReplyDeleteI work at a library and we still have so many encyclopedias that are rarely used. We just did a big purge of them and it freed up a lot of shelf space, which is nice. We still kept a couple of sets though! I think it's good to have at least one set on hand!
ReplyDeleteI had forgotten all about my parent's set of World Book encyclopedias until I read today's blog. My parents bought them when my sister was born in 1948. I loved looking through those books. Wish I still had them.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh! I totally remember these! Now I feel really old, haha.
ReplyDeleteWe totally did! This brought back really fun memories of me and my mom going through the encyclopedias and the dictionaries we kept at the house. Thanks for the reminder ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks for your visits and comments! Glad that other folks remember these encyclopedias too. :-)
ReplyDeleteI grew up with a set of maybe two of The World Book encyclopedias! There was no such thing as the internet. We had a set at home, getting annual update books from the company as well. We used the books at home rather than the library quite often. If we needed more resources (as we grew older, that seemed a requirement), then we went to the library for other books on a subject.
ReplyDeleteAs Becky commented above, I was a librarian and they are rarely used these days, but many teachers require "other" sources besides the internet. But the negative also was that the branch libraries rarely bought updated versions because of the cost and let the main branch spend the money on one set. So people who used them had to go to that one branch.
But...I still think they are an excellent resource and glad to know they are still around. They are handy too.
Thanks for the visit! I love reading insights from librarians. I had not thought of the cost of regularly updated encyclopedias at a library, but that is a great point.
ReplyDeleteI was in awe over the second hand encyclopedia set we had as kids. Maybe it was the love of books I had; maybe it was the love of learning.
ReplyDeleteOur newest Literacy Musing Monday is awaiting your next throwback treasure!
Tami, great point! I definitely think our encyclopedia encouraged a love of learning.
ReplyDeleteI used to love making recipes from the children's cookbook! If your mother has it and you can find some sort of ISBN#, or can take a photo, I would love to see it. I want to see if I can find another one for my daughter. Thanks!!!
ReplyDeleteLeona Bollinger Silliman: My parents bought our World Book Encyclopedia Set when I was in Elementary School, 1962.
ReplyDeleteI am now 75. Our two children used them when they were growing up. They currently reside in our living room in bookcases that my parents had when I was growing up.
Leona Bollinger Silliman, how neat that you still have your childhood World Book encyclopedias! I still have mine too, and have fond memories of using them through childhood. - Trish
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