I’ve got the encyclopedia Britannica at home. It’s from 1989 and of course, much of the contents are very outdated. I have for the last 10 years contemplated discarding the set, but I keep thinking about all the times my kids used it for school research, and when even myself and my wife wanted to understand some subjects a bit better.
Now, with the internet and even some internet encyclopedias, the subject matter is very up to date and a lot easier to find material. But, that printed set is so beautiful and so nostalgic, that I still can’t bring myself to trash it. Perhaps in another 5 years. But, by then the set may be a classic and I may change my mind again.
Actually, the majority of information in a 1989 set of encyclopedias is still accurate. Sure, there have been some technological and medical advances as well as some historical changes, but the overwhelming body of knowledge known to humanity has not changed in the past 9 year.
I was recently going through stacks of books in my attic and I stumbled upon a print copy of Jack London's "Call Of The Wild" which I had since I was a boy. It still has my underlines and side notes from the spring of 1973 when I was doing a book report on it in 5th grade. So even though full texts for "Call Of The Wild" are available on the Web for free (evidently the copyrights have expired and it is in public domain), the book has sentimental value that exceeds whatever I could get for it on eBay.
I remember back around 1980 on that game show Tic-Tac-Dough, A Navy pilot on leave in California was on the show and couldn’t lose. He eventually got his leave extended, rented a warehouse for his “million dollars worth of cash and prizes” and six new cars. Wink Martindale asked him what he attributed to his vast knowledge (they ran out of things to talk about long before that) and he said when he was a kid, his mother bought him a new Encylopedia Britannica and he spent all his time on the toilet reading it.