I have to say I would take them. We have the World Book from the 70’s (and the wonderful Childcraft set). I haven’t really seen any printed encyclopedia form later than that, but I have the World Book for the computer that’s just a year old. I hate it. Really, it has so much less information than my old printed set.
I know they aren’t living books, but at least they have long articles about real things. I imagine a set from the 50’s would be even more interesting. I mean really, sometimes I just want a little info, even though I love love love living books. Sometimes the kids look through them just to get ideas of things they would like to study more about.
My husband loves to get one out and just read something to us about something and talk about it for a while. It’s fun; I wouldn’t want to be without a set.