Encyclopedias

     Some things become collectible. Some things just do not. I have not seen any eight track tapes being auctioned for millions so I gather that those just have no value.

     Now, we are at the end of the era of printed encyclopedias. I get it. If I were to write down all of the things I have learned from the internet just in this last year, I would fill volumes. Printed encyclopedias just cannot compete with the internet.

     I already have an odd reaction to encyclopedias. I saw a set recently and opened one. I flipped through the pages and thought, "this is it?"

     Yes, I owned a set of encyclopedias as a child. I read them cover to cover when I was bored. I read voraciously. Now that I have had the internet for about twenty years, I am used to being able to open several tabs and start my research. It takes seconds to find four or five articles that will have the information that I need. It takes seconds to copy and paste the bibliography information into a document.

     It's easier, its faster, it takes up less space to use the internet.

     So what will happen to all of those encyclopedias? Do we really want to keep them around to show our children how our studies were done as a child? "Really mom, you could write a report based on ONE article in an encyclopedia and turn it in? We have to have several internet sites to cite."

     Ugh...

     No thank you. There are no encyclopedias at my house. My children still think that I am intelligent. My children still believe that I worked hard at school. My children still believe that I am a step ahead of them.

     No, for now, I believe I will continue to buy myself a little bit more time before they consider me to be an artifact.

     All right. Perhaps some will keep their encyclopedias for sentimental value. Perhaps some will keep them to see if they can be on Antiques Roadshow someday.

      I will not give my children any ammunition or evidence.

      It happens quickly enough. My kids have already asked me if there were computers when I was a child. Phew! Thankfully, although household computers were unheard of when I was a child, my father was a programmer, so we had one. I was able to smile and say, "of course we did"... thus postponing my ancient-ness for another day.

     Well, maybe it was a few days later when she told me she had heard a song by one of those old timey groups, the Beastie Boys....

     Sigh.... Move over encyclopedias... It looks like I will need a space on that bench.

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