[Web4lib] The Wikipedia Gotcha

[Louise Alcorn]

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Lars Aronsson
Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2007 10:26 AM
To: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Web4lib] The Wikipedia Gotcha


>Traditionally, encyclopedias were a gift to kids when they went to
college, before the PC took on that role.  The cost of purchase
($1000?) divided by the number of times people actually look something
up (once a month?) in their encyclopedia over its lifetime (10 years? =
120 months) can be quite high ($1000 / 120 = $8.30 per lookup).  But
despite this, encyclopedias sold very well, not because >of their
usefulness but because of the prestige.


An interesting addendum to this.  In the early days of my parents'
marriage, they lived for a time in Oak Ridge, TN while my father, a
chemical engineering grad student, did work at the labs there.  To earn
a little extra money my mother sold encyclopedias door to door.  She
would go into the poor neighborhoods and 'hollers' sometimes to sell.
This was when you could basically buy a volume at a time, paying over
time.  This appealed to the mostly illiterate mothers who answered the
door, as they saw encyclopedias and the knowledge they contained as a
'way out' for their children.  They would choose to scrape together
funds from their housekeeping money to buy the set over time.  So
clearly the 'prestige' you're talking about was well planted in the
American psyche to good marketing effect.   

My mother tells this story with sadness, especially when she relates
that more than half the time, the fathers would come home and tell their
wives to cancel the order, because their kids didn't need an
encyclopedia to work in the mines or whatever.  So, limited prestige,
ultimately.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Louise E. Alcorn
Reference Technology Librarian
West Des Moines Public Library
4000 Mills Civic Pkwy
West Des Moines IA 50265
(515) 222-3573      louise.alcorn at wdm-ia.com
http://www.wdmlibrary.org