Encyclopedia Sets
Encyclopedia sets offer you all the information you may need on a wide range of topics. The first type of encyclopedia set to be offered was a set that was broken up by alphabet. Most of them included one for each letter of the alphabet and then an index. Since the internet wasn’t nearly as popular as it is today, families kept encyclopedia sets as a way to educate their children and to provide valuable research for school assignments.
Encyclopedia sets were commonly sold by door to door sales men in the 1950’s and 1960’s. To make the price more affordable for the family budget, the encyclopedia sets were paid for in installments. Depending on the company they were purchased from, the family could acquire the entire set at one time or they could receive a couple of volumes in the set each month until they had a full set.
The major drawback to encyclopedia sets in this format occurred when new information was added or modified. Since it didn’t make sense for families to purchase a new set each year, they commonly made due with the outdated books. Over time, the encyclopedia set a family had became obsolete.
Another drawback was the cost, even with the installment plans being offered. Since the books were huge compilations of material, the cost of printing them was expensive. The heavy duty binding to keep the encyclopedia sets in excellent condition was also expensive.
The hard copy encyclopedia sets that are on the market today still cost several thousand dollars. They ones from the well known companies who offer beautiful gold lettering on the outside of each volume are even more expensive.
With the explosion of the internet in the 1980’s, new types of encyclopedia sets emerged. They became available on discs that in installed on your computer. They were less expensive because there was no printing involved. They could also be taken anyway. The best part was that the updates could easily be accessed.
Today there are even plenty of excellent online encyclopedia sets to choose from. This is perfect for those who have a great deal of research to conduct or who don’t have the storage space for their encyclopedia set.
