Encyclopedias - Are they valid tools or a lost cause?

Before getting my temporary position at the school I am at currently, I always believed that print references were still valid and used in elementary school libraries.  Now that I am at a school and am being exposed to reality, I am having a hard time 'selling' print encyclopedias to students and to teachers.  I never thought that a reference section would collect so much dust and be ignored as much as mine is.  I joked today with a class about how many students had even touched a 'real' print encyclopedia.  Honestly, not many had.   Even the encyclopedia companies are having a hard time keeping up their print encyclopedias.  A recent article in the New York Times announced that Encyclopedia Britannica will not be printing anymore encyclopedias, instead they will be focusing on their website. The article described how many American families use to put themselves in debt just to own a set of Encyclopedia Britannica's. Now the company cannot even afford to keep producing encyclopedias because of lack of sales and public interest.

 In this modern time there just seems to be no use for expensive print encyclopedias. So should they even be in libraries, especially elementary school libraries? I say yes, but only if they get used.  There is no point in having sets of encyclopedias that just sit on a shelf and never get used.  The person who has the most power over the encyclopedias fate is the teacher librarian.  Maybe encyclopedias will not have the same significance as they once did for research purposes.  However, they still can be used for comparisons and checking for accuracy (in some cases at least). The question still remains: are encyclopedias worth having in a school library or is it better to have a set of i-pads? The choice lies with the teacher librarian.

Article: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/after-244-years-encyclopaedia-britannica-stops-the-presses/