Redundant Tools

Back in the 1990's, I was teaching professional English to adults and English at the university. The books in this pile represented a lot of expense, but they were needed by learners and/or teachers.
Now, as part of a clear-out they are on their way to the charity shop, redundant!  They are no longer needed because I'm retired and doubt I will ever teach English again, but they are also unneeded because the information they represent is available on the web, mostly for free, or via a subscription.
The Collins Cobuild dictionary is a good example. It was a sign of modernity when it appeared in 1987, because it was based on a database of actual word usage. Now it is available free on the web, and even includes extras such as a common usage score, lists of real examples of usage, and even the Scrabble score of every word.
I'm not entirely giving up dead tree dictionaries and have kept a couple of (really expensive!) technical translation dictionaries, but really I'm sure it's just nostalgia making me keep them.
The (paper) dictionary is dead, long live the (online) dictionary!
PS It was raining today so the Red House roof stayed covered and instead I started a sort through of the storage room in the same house - and that led to today's blip.

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