# What do I do with an outdated set of encyclopedias **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 7, 2005, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-do-with-an-outdated-set-of-encyclopedias/288881 "2005-02-07T22:30:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![justwannano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ab992/32.png) [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2005, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-do-with-an-outdated-set-of-encyclopedias/288881/41 "2005-02-08T22:27:17Z")
Just don’t try to quote from them. In a discussion a couple of years ago about weather glass was a liquid or solid I quoted from an old set rescued from the bookshelves at my grandmothers. David B chastized me for it. 😃 Hey tripler how far is it from Iowa to Montana? I have 3 old sets. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2005, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-do-with-an-outdated-set-of-encyclopedias/288881/42 "2005-02-08T22:44:58Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > Here’s a suggestion: > > Contact your local school district. Ask for names of middle or upper elementary school teachers with gifted students who are from lower-income families. Contact teacher; establish contact with family through teacher; offer encyclopedias to kid. Probably 75-85% of the content of the typical 20-year-old encyclopedia is still accurate, and the kid, hungry for knowledge, will **love** having his own set. You know, I tried exactly that, but my local school district rejected the gift of a perfectly functioning, but somewhat obsolete Macintosh and felt that it would be unfair to offer it to any particular student. Maybe the OP will have better luck than I did, but I am pessimistic. I wound up giving it to a family member instead. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-do-with-an-outdated-set-of-encyclopedias/288881/43 "2005-02-09T00:21:52Z")
> [@justwannano](#): > > Hey tripler how far is it from Iowa to Montana? > I have 3 old sets. Um, I could do that in two days. But it’ll be awhile before I get down that way. . . maybe a few months. Now if they were 1920s-style Death Encyclopedias, I’d be all over that tomorrow. 😃 Tripler Okay, on rereading that joke, it was funny the first time around. :smack: . ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-do-with-an-outdated-set-of-encyclopedias/288881/44 "2005-02-09T00:34:42Z")
I still have the set my parents bought back in the early sixties, a World Book set, plus a set of Year Books covering from 1966 to 1978. My own kids (ages 16 and 8) have used them at various times for basic stuff. Yeah, nothing beats Google these days, but for simple things, it’s really easy to grab the appropriate book and quickly find a fact. I was also an enclyopedia-reader as a kid. I can remember sitting on the basement steps and paging through them, reading various bits. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-do-with-an-outdated-set-of-encyclopedias/288881/45 "2005-02-09T00:43:50Z")
> [@BiblioCat](#): > > I still have the set my parents bought back in the early sixties, a World Book set, plus a set of Year Books covering from 1966 to 1978. Oh. My. God. . . What are the chances. You and I must be siblings. :eek: Are they on a shelf in the basement/cellar? Have you ever read them and just _smell_ the pro-U.S./anti-Soviet propaganda in them? Aw man, it’s as thick as the fog in San Francisco. . . Tripler Heck, maybe that’s where I got _my_ brainwashing as a kid [sub]by reading them[/sub]. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2005, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-do-with-an-outdated-set-of-encyclopedias/288881/46 "2005-02-09T01:39:35Z")
> [@Tripler](#): > > Oh. My. God. . . > > What are the chances. You and I must be siblings. :eek: Are they on a shelf in the basement/cellar? 😃 When I was a kid, they were on a shelf at the bottom of the basement steps. We had these great floor-to-ceiling shelves all along one wall, and whenever I was bored, or just wanted something to read, I’d sit on the bottom step (with my back against the wall and my legs across the step) and read. In the summer, it was always nice and cool down in the basement. Now that I have them, they’re on a shelf in the den. > [@](#): > > Have you ever read them and just _smell_ the pro-U.S./anti-Soviet propaganda in them? Actually, we lived in a flood plain and the basement flooded whenever there was a hurricane or heavy rains. All you could smell was ‘damp.’ 😉 They still smell rather musty, but I just can’t bring myself to throw them away. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-do-with-an-outdated-set-of-encyclopedias/288881.md?page=2)