Back when we were setting up housekeeping on our own, in the early 1960s, most homes had a set of encyclopedias.Growing up, we had access to those in my parents’ home so when a salesman asked us about buying our own, it was an easy sale. Today, they fill up the top shelf of our bookcase, while another shelf holds a set our husband acquired overseas. All they really do today is collect dust.

They were once regular references for just about anything we wanted or needed to know. Today, they’re more like historic record books, with information on countries which no longer exist or have changed names, sometimes more than once.They also contain terms which would be totally unfamiliar to today’s high school or college student. We remember a youngster coming into our office 10 or 15 years ago and pointing at our old Underwood typewriter in the corner as he whispered to his mom, “What’s that?’’

Our new go-to source for just about everything is the internet. We’re about as computer illiterate as they come, but we did learn early on how to go online and look up information. If someone on TV is talking about an island country and we don’t know where it’s located, we look it up on the computer. If we’re not sure about the correct spelling of a word, we ask the computer. If we want to know what’s available for motel rooms in a vacation resort and how much they cost, we simply go online. When we’re headed for an out-of-town ball game and need to check out possible routes, as well as how long it will take, we know where to find the answers.

Even the daily news is instantly available thanks to the internet. Our own weekly newspaper offers the daily Morning Catch which updates us on the latest scoops. We can quickly see what’s going on in Portland, Boston, Bangor, or anywhere else.

Need statistics? The internet can provide them. Want to refresh your memory on an incident that happened months ago?Yep, you’ll find it on the internet.

In many ways, the internet is just one more reason that books have taken a back seat in today’s world. Television, too, offers hundreds of educational shows on scores of subjects ranging from historical events to nature and the world around us. It’s sometimes a challenge to get young people to read, but thank goodness so far many of them still love a good book.

Information is usually available within seconds of an event. If there’s a major disaster, details will be quickly forthcoming. Want to know the outcome of a sports event? You no longer have to wait because you’ll be able to get the answer within minutes.

While most of us don’t purchase sets of encyclopedias these days, many of the leading encyclopedia companies offer subscription sales online and also provide a lot of information free of charge. All the information we want or need to know is still available at our fingertips; it just means using a keyboard rather than turning pages. Who knows, maybe our great-great-grandchildren will be fascinated with the information they’ll find in our now outdated 60-year-old encyclopedias!