What to do with a dictionary?

[thistlechaser]

I had to take a college course for work, and one of the required books was a physical copy of the dictionary. Since it was required (and since work was paying for it), I begrudgingly bought a copy of it.

And never once in the entire class did I need it. It is still wrapped in the original plastic. (Who looks things up in a physical dictionary?)

I had been hoping to sell it back to Amazon, but even they don't want it.



It's big, it weighs a ton. Why do they even make physical dictionaries anymore? Ugh.

I suppose I'll donate it to the library.

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

Maybe there's a school you can donate it to? I'm thinking elementary school especially, since those kids would likely be too young to have smartphones they can just look stuff up on, and I think I remember some dictionary-using assignments when the rodents were at that level.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Oh, I like that idea even better than the library, since the library would just sell it.

[wizardelfgirl.livejournal.com]

lol *I* look things up in a physical dictionary. I've a few specialized dictionaries I use when translating technical/medical/accounting/law stuff. It's not that easy to find those on the internet, there are a few glossaries here and there, but not as complete.

Also, if power goes out, printed stuff is useful to keep on working!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

A specialized dictionary I could see, but this was just a normal one... And they have all the same info online on their own website!

Good point about if the power goes out though.

[wizardelfgirl.livejournal.com]

I think it's about keeping certain skills. Nowadays there are children who don't know how to look up a word in a printed dictionary or research stuff in actual books in a library because they find everything online. It's part of the whole "this-younger-generation-is-becoming-lazy-less-skilled-and-impatient-because-they-are-becoming-too-dependant-on-technology" thing older folk are constantly griping about. When I was at Uni we were taught to research online, but we were also made to buy spanish and english dictionaries even though there were online versions of them, simply because they expected us to do the actual work of looking up the words instead of just googling them (and because there are times when you can't use the internet; for instance, when I first started working at one of the studios, I wasn't allowed on the internet for security reasons so I had to bring my printed thesaurus with me until we found a way to let me use the internet without compromising the materials).

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Hm, that's true. I hadn't thought about companies that didn't let you access the net. It'd be very useful in that case!

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I agree - donate it to a school! School library budgets are a JOKE and they actually use dictionaries. (Though oddly enough I had TWO requests for a physical dictionary this month while I was at work. I think the tutors made them use them)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Good to hear! I have a school within walking distance of me, I think I'll start there.