What are you using for encylopedia resources?

[Jules in MI]

I'm totally dating myself here, but what do most people use now instead of old, full volume, dust collecting encylopedia sets? I was just thinking if my sons wanted to research a particular topic an encylopedia set would be very useful, esp. since they love books. BUT, they are only 8yo and 6yo and I don't know if they would be computer literate enough to have one on cd. I just never hear of families purchasing these expensive book sets anymore. Are there sets that are completely on cd that a young child could use? Am I missing something?? Cost?

[Karen in TN]

Call us dinosaurs, but we bought a set of World Book encyclopedias a few years back and absolutely love them. I've tried using a few different CD encyclopedias (don't remember which ones), and I thought they were cumbersome to use and not nearly as in detail as the good old-fashioned books. Besides there's something satisfying about thumbing through pages. Ours have gotten good use from the kids and us adults from day one. The kids frequently look things up that are completely unrelated to school.

Karen

[mamato3 all-boy boys]

We got a nearly complete set at the library for FREE!! So, as long as the boys don't want to look up anything starting with the letters U,V, W, X, Y or Z, we're all set.

But, really, I think an 8 year old needs to learn to use the computer to start looking up stuff. I still have our complementary Microsoft encarta CD from when we purchased this computer (2002), and my 9-year-old-just-ten-days (*sniff*) has a blast looking stuff up and then following the clicks to other related sites. I certainly want my children to know how to look up stuff in real books, but computers are the wave of the future (LOL at myself), so I want them to learn young when it isn't soo painful.

[Mallory]

I just bought a set. 2001 World Book for $11 at our library book store!

[Trivium Academy]

This year we picked up a set of 2001 World Book encyclopedias for $25, I've used them personally but haven't gotten dd7 involved yet but will. I also hope to acquired a new set from a library when they are ready to sell them, I have my eye on a 2006 set. :)

[Kathleen in VA]

I just posted my ideas on the joys of owning a set of encyclopedias on another thread (If you could only have one thing...). I will cut and paste it here:

I agree with the good library thing - we are very blessed to have one of the best library systems in the country (Central Rappahannock Regional Library), but if you mean something tangible it would be my World Book Encyclopedia (the books, not the computer version).

Most information in an encyclopedia does not change so even an older used set is extremely useful. My non-readers had post-its stuck in all the entries they were interested in (the ones with lots of pictures). They learned alphabetical order by retrieving the volumes for me.

Whenever they asked, "Why?," I would say, "Let's look it up." That taught them that the smart people aren't the ones who know everything - they're the ones who know how to find out.

Many times I would find one or more of them lounging around the LR totally absorbed in a volume.

Many times I would tell them to look something up only to hear them say after a few minutes pause, "Mom, did you know....?" (fill in the blank) about something completely unrelated. That's why I like the books as opposed to the CD - they learn a lot from reading entries that catch their eye as they are looking something else up.

I bought my 1998 set in 2002 for about $50 at a library book sale (another reason I love my library). Before that we had the 1969 set that my parents bought new.

There's more, but I've rambled long enough.

[Lori D.]

We've really enjoyed the World Book Encyclopedia on CD. One CD-ROM, and access to online resources.

Also, Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia has some great articles/entries. Just go the website, and type in the name or subject of whatever you want to research into the search box. Wikipedia = http://www.wikipedia.org/

And some other great online research resources:
- How Stuff Works = http://www.howstuffworks.com/
- Encyclopedia Brittanica, encyclopedia = http://www.britannica.com/
- Info Please = http://www.infoplease.com/
- Answers.Com = http://www.answers.com/
- Bartleby (great books online, including reference books) = http://www.bartleby.com/
- Yahooligans (directory of kid-friendly Internet sites) = http://kids.yahoo.com/
- Yahool Help = http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/kids/reference/

[Lisawa]

We use many of the same online resources. Only we don't use our WB cd anymore. Its old and we bought it years ago when we first used Sonlight curriculum... so it wont work on our computer anymore....

We've really enjoyed the World Book Encyclopedia on CD. One CD-ROM, and access to on-line resources.

Also, Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia has some great articles/entries. Just go the website, and type in the name or subject of whatever you want to research into the search box. Wikipedia = http://www.wikipedia.org/

And some other great online research resources:
- How Stuff Works = http://www.howstuffworks.com/
- Encyclopedia Brittanica, encyclopedia = http://www.britannica.com/
- Info Please = http://www.infoplease.com/
-- Yahooligans (directory of kid-friendly Internet sites) = http://kids.yahoo.com/

[mchel210]

When I was working at our local private school library...we used the internet links. We could print articles or encyclopedia articles...up to date. I loved that resource. No reason to purchase when you have that....BUT...you still have to go and make sure to use the ones in the library for practice. Here was one link: http://www.kidsclick.org/ We used SIRS all the time... http://www.proquestk12.com/ I think it is free.

[Colleen in NS]

Most information in an encyclopedia does not change so even an older used set is extremely useful.

I've wondered about this, so thanks for sharing!

I found a complete set of 1983 World Book encyclopedias last year for $5, and a few weeks ago I picked up a free, complete set of 1970 Encyclopedia Britannica. I was so excited to find these resources, and my kids LOVE sitting around reading them at random. Plus, I want to use them for history and science studies over the next few years. I would LOVE to be able to buy a brand new set of each, but it's impossible for us - so reading your quote was encouraging. I know I'll probably have to find additional recent sources of info. for some things, but to have this base is so fun.

[LibrarianMom]

We used SIRS all the time... http://www.proquestk12.com/ I think it is free.

Some states provide schools and libraries with access to SIRS for free or reduced cost. Other schools and libraries choose to purchase access to databases like SIRS for several thousand dollars a year. SIRS is a great resource because instead of indexing every article in a large number of periodicals, SIRS only indexes select articles from magazines and newspapers that they feel are the best.

A nice free resource that provides access to a variety of resource types is Kidspace (http://www.ipl.org/div/kidspace/).

LibrarianMom