This is an awesome thing to have. It's really handy to be able to pull out an encyclopedia volume and get a quick overview of the subject you're researching. You can get encyclopedias for the computer now that are really cheap (much cheaper than buying the whole set). If you can't afford that, there's always wikipedia , which is often better and more extensive than a regular encyclopedia. Only problem with wikipedia is that anyone can come in and change things, so you want to make sure and check it periodically to make sure the thing you referenced has stood up to reader scrutiny.