Old editions of Encyclopedias...What to do with them

[Book Crazy]

I have a set of encyclopedias, dated 1983 and apart from taking up room on the book shelf, they are not doing much else. There are 29 volumes, plus 2 dictionaries.

 

What does one do with old encyclopedias? I live in an area with no thrift stores to pass them onto, even if they would take them.

 

I could offer them free, with the buyer paying shipping, but I really don't know how much that would be.

 

So, what should I do with them?

[Karen sn]

Put them on Craigslist.org and mention they're free. It's a local thing - so people can just come and pick them up. No postage necessary. Don't forget - if you do decide to mail them to someone - the post office offers a media rate which is way cheaper than regular rate.

 

What brand are they?

I had a World Book set (or something like) that growing up - we would look at them all the time. Just pick one up and browse.

I now have a beautiful old set of Brittanicas and I love the way they look on my shelves.

[Book Crazy]

I didn't think about Craigslist.

 

They are by Funk and Wagnalls.

 

I suppose we could start going through them, A-Z and see what we learn.

 

Something to do on a rainy afternoon here in Florida. :D

[PeterPan]

We like our old encyclopedias (even older than yours, if you can imagine!) too. It's just a personality thing I guess, lol. My SIL is just the opposite, wanted them new or not at all. I figure if I want new info, I can look up things online. I actually have TWO old sets, if you can imagine. So yes, offer them on craig's list. Someone will probably want them! :)

[orangearrow]

We have an old set of encyclopedias that were dh's grandmother's. I think they're early 80s World Books. We love them - as someone else said, we use the internet if we need "very recent" information, otherwise we look it up in the good, old World Book. :) Definitely offer them up on Freecycle or Craig's List. You'll make someone's day! :D

[In The Great White North]

We have a 1968 set of World Book Encyclopedias from when I was a kid. Hauled them all the way up from Michigan. A lot of the info hasn't changed and they're a lot more fun to look through than Google!

 

I bet someone would love to have them - new ones are hundreds of $.

 

If Craigslist doesn't work, try your local paper. In ours, classifieds are free if the item is free.

[Mamasteff]

My mom has a set of World Books from about 1965 or so... there is indeed an article (I think it is "Space") in which the phrase "Someday, man may walk on the moon" appears.

 

We had them in our living room while we were growing up and most times there was a question at the dinner table, we'd be told to "go look it up." They were/ are outdated but oh, the memories of going to look things up in those slick pages. Especially the see-through frog pages!

 

We used them well into the 1980s for research reports - I don't think we ever got dinged by the teacher for naming the population of Afghanistan from 20 or 25 years previously... and it is so interesting to go through them now as history.

 

So my vote is.... keep them?? Or, indeed, someone nearby may want them. (Libraries don't. School libraries don't. A local ps teacher might, though they may be used to cut out pictures for school projects.)

[Chris in CA]

donate them to the local library bookstore?

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

How about Book Mooch?

[Trivium Academy]

I'm donating our World Book set to the local library so they can sell them to fund their projects. We've moved to a smaller place for the time being so our shelf space has become prime real estate. I'll probably be donating a lot of books, sigh. I can always go use the more recent World Book set AT the library. ;) I wouldn't put them on BookMooch.com though b/c the shipping costs is yours, I watch the weight of the books I give away there.