Do you think that the "old-fashioned" encyclopedia is still useful?  

I agree with you : an indexed encyclopedia (online/DVD) is good to get quickly an answer.

But, when I have time to kill, I love to leaf through my old paper encyclopedia : many times it opened me new doors to explore new subjects of interest.

Don't throw your old encyclopedia !

When I was growing up my mom had a set of encyclopedias. Sadly enough, with the advent of the internet, I think it is easier to find info you need online. Encyclopedias can be neat t look at.

In my opinion these books are absolutely useless. First of all, the information in these books is out of date. Secondly, these old dated books have been replaced by digital encyclopedias, which are far more informative and even interactive than the old books ever were.

Due to the expense and amount of space they take up, I do not believe they are useful in homes amymore.

BUT, there are times when it is useful to be able to have several different volumes open to full pages of something you are researching without having to click back and forth between pages on your computer. For that reason, I think they are still a useful tool to keep in libraries, as long as they are kept up-to-date and current.

I still like looking through old encyclopedias. There are some pieces of information I can find more easily in an encyclopedia than I can find online. For instance, my Mythic Bestiaries have more information about mythical creatures than I was ever able to find going around in circles on google. The internet is good, but it's full of crazy misinformation and not-so-helpful information. I still like my paper books.

It will still be useful if you use it in an old-fashioned way too. Its a new edge and new technology is now, there is an internet, a wide-web. Just a click a way you can see on what you have been looking for. And also, now there is an ebook.

The hardback, physical copy will be replaced by either audio, or an ebook version. The information it's self wont change much. The way you get it is really the only difference. Google has a neat little project going to digitize all books for online consumption. I wish I were a student right now(not really, but I think it's kinda cool to not have to visit a library to read up on things for a big test.)

It's funny that you bring that up. We just put our house on the market and are going through all of our things to decide what to move and what to keep. We donated the encyclopedias to the library. It didn't make sense to pay to move them and like you anytime I need information, I check it out on line. One of the problems with encyclopedias is that since information is constantly changing, they are out of date almost as soon as you buy them. Our Aunt was born in 1911 and when she passed away in 2004, we inherited all of her books. It's actually kind of fund to go through those things and see how much things have changed. She had a second edition Boston Cooking School cookbook that she inherited from her mother. I love to look at the recipes. Our world is so different today.

i think it's not useful anymore because everything is on the internet now.

Yes encyclopaedia is still useful in many rural areas where there's no internet connectivity.. but with the development in technology,creativity and innovation a dont think people who are well equipped does'n need the encarta anymore...