Hi Renata: Please don't despair. When I was "growing up" (I'm pushing 69) there were definitely encyclopedias but they surely were not the *only research tools*. Information was available, you just had to really dig for it - go to the library, comb through the card catalogue, go into the stacks, find the books, gather the information you needed, write it out by hand on paper (there were no copiers), and note the source for the information on the set of 3 x 5 index cards that you collected for the research project; or have the research librarian retrieve the newspapers, or periodicals, or white papers or mirco film and repeat what you did with the books; write it out by hand on paper (again, no copiers), and note the source for the information on the set of 3 x 5 index cards that you collected for the research project.
Then you took all the information home, hand wrote the paper and once you were happy with it, you typed it out on a manual typewriter, making sure that you spaced it so that there would be enough room at the bottom for the footnotes for each particular page. If you had to make more than one copy, you put carbon paper in between the sheets of paper and if you made a mistake, you carefully corrected every page, making sure not to smudge the carbon or allow the papers and the carbon to shift out of alignment. If you needed more than 4 copies you typed the paper on a mimeograph stencil. If you made a mistake on the stencil, you used a mat knife and carefully scraped the error off the back of the top sheet, cut a corner off the stencil at the bottom and inserted that in the space between the top sheet and the stencil back and typed the letter(s) again, making sure that you did not accidentally let the top sheet or the stencil slip in the typewriter roller, because if you did all of your alignment would be off for the rest of the paper. There was a fluid to correct errors, but it never worked very well. When the paper was done, you put the stencil on a mimeograph machine and cranked it by hand until the stencil impression was no longer deep enough to make copies. If you needed more copies, you had to cut another stencil by re-typing the entire paper. I know this probably sounds like "I had to hike 20 miles to school with snow up to my waist" - which I didn't - but I offer it only to say that we humans are a pretty persistent and creative bunch and when determined enough we can make things work. Sometimes, having to really dig for something makes it all that much more precious. Take care, Amy On Tue, Jul 14, 2015 at 1:22 PM, Renata St <renataw...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi. > > So I saw this YouTube video yesterday about kids reacting to printed > encyclopedia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7aJ3xaDMuM&noredirect=1 > > It made me sad. And very fearful of the future of Wikipedia. > > These kids do not appreciate knowledge and information because they grew up > with its abundance. When I was growing up (and I am only 30), printed > encyclopedia was the only research tool. These kids will never know the > frustration when you tried looking something up in those dusty volumes only > to find minimal information ("stub") or, worse yet, nothing on the topic. > And the nagging feeling it left you with because your curiosity was not > satisfied and you thirsted for more, but there was nothing else! And so > when Wikipedia came around it was this wondrous thing where information was > seemingly limitless and endless. And it was expanding at dizzying speeds. > And you could add more! It was the answer to my childhood fantasy of having > the limitless encyclopedia that answered every questions. And it filed my > heart with joy and satisfaction not unlike the joy of a child in candy > story (yes, I am a geek). > > Those kids never deprived of knowledge and information will never know how > precious it is. They will not have the same love that is required to edit > Wikipedia and write quality articles. And it makes me sad. > > Renata > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> -- *Amy Vossbrinck* *Executive Assistant to the* *Chief of Finance and Administration, Garfield Byrd* *Wikimedia Foundation* *149 New Montgomery Street* *San Francisco, CA 94105* *415.839.6885 ext 6628* *avossbri...@wikimedia.org <avossbri...@wikimedia.org>* _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
