But I Need My Crutch

What's on at your local movie theater? Check the internet. What's the capital of Albania? Check the internet. What does it mean when my throat is sore and my tongue is coated with some bizarre green slime? Check the....well, you get the picture. We no longer consult reference books to answer the myriad questions that arise every day because everything we need to know is a mouse click away. Unfortunately those reference books used to have an authority that was implied by their very publication, and that implied authority seems to have transferred now to anything we see on the screen after completing our "Google" inquiry. The Information Scientist says we need him to tell us if the words we see on our screen are to be trusted, but who's asking? Certainly not the millions who ask and click every day, happily evaluating the results themselves for good or ill.