Finding information in 2018 without the internet?

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Hypothetical situation here -- Effective tomorrow, the internet is no more. For any given subject, what method would you go back to, in order to find somewhat up to date information?

Do they still make paper encyclopedias? Magazines? Library?

I went to school before the internet was a thing, and I remember looking up information the 'old way', but I feel like I've forgotten how to do it.
 
Originally Posted by skyactiv
It could happen tomorrow if a massive solar flare hits the earth.

If its that bad we all will be dead..no electricity,food, etc

Think about what you did before the internet. That's the answer.
 
well, since we have become a "now world" it would be very difficult. everything we need is "now" readily to be had at our finger tips.

I would just have to move on and thank my heavens that I have a wealth of knowledge thanks to the internet. Hopefully that's suffice to get me through the rest of life. that's if the internet never comes back.
 
Same thing here from a retired library director. We replaced all reference books well over a decade ago and were spending roughly a million dollars a year or databases not available free on the web. Always thought librarians should have supported Wikipedia maybe putting their seal of approval on accurate articles. They were too overly professional to do that.

As to what's gonna happen after the great e-war of 2022, I worry about that a lot.
 
Originally Posted by John_K
I am a retired librarian and I ca n tell you it is getting harder and harder to find anything without using the Internet.

I still remember how to use a card catalog. Now, finding one might be another matter.
wink.gif
These days, and thinking back, it's not that I couldn't find a whack of information back then, just give me a big enough library, or a network of them, particularly on a campus. The speed of access these days is just so much better. What would have been an afternoon shot at the library researching to find suitable sources is like five minutes now.

Of course, scientific publications and textbooks still exist, but encyclopedias, newspapers, and even ordinary magazines have sure taken a hit.
 
If the library has a computerized card catalog, you still could not find anything.
 
The internet going away suddenly would slow things up for a little bit. If computer networking went away it would slow up a lot until distribution systems and hardware capable of reading physical media could be rebuilt.
 
No offence to anyone but after being on the net for 23 years it wouldn't bother me if my personal connection
was gone. Just give me my tv and my landline and I will easily survive.

This is the only forum I'm on. I have my own but quit visiting them years ago. I used it successfully to
make my mail order business global but it was before then anyhow.

Cell phones can go too. I'm really tired of all the nonsense the digital world brought to us.... lol

Of course I realize young people don't think this way and that I fully understand.

I'm sure it would be a fiasco. Anybody remember y2k?
 
Originally Posted by wdn
If the library has a computerized card catalog, you still could not find anything.


Could you? Airplanes were classified as aeroplanes cause it would be prohibitive to change tens of thousands of cards. Cecil B. Demille is under D because he's American. It's Gaulle , Charles de cause he's French. Card catalogue s died forty years ago for good reason.
 
Originally Posted by Zee09
I'm sure it would be a fiasco. Anybody remember y2k?
When I watch TV from the late 90s it might as well have been 40, not 20 years ago. Things were completely different back then. It's kind of surprising that message boards like this still exist, they differ little from how they were back then. A real anachronism.
 
I can remember having to send orders off tot he state library to get certain engineering books loaned in.

Data like that is often NOT available on the internet!!!

Not without paying a huge fee (like to read S.A.E. papers.. $HEE$$H!!!)
 
Originally Posted by maxdustington
Originally Posted by Zee09
I'm sure it would be a fiasco. Anybody remember y2k?
When I watch TV from the late 90s it might as well have been 40, not 20 years ago. Things were completely different back then. It's kind of surprising that message boards like this still exist, they differ little from how they were back then. A real anachronism.


TV writers are conservative. They didn't use cellphones until everyone absolutely had them. Those that did have phones were "special" like Mulder and Scully on "X-Files." PS, you can date that series by evolution of their phones.
 
Look at Seinfeld. He was still using the old Ma Bell touch tone phone and Elaine was using an archaic by those days' standards cordless with an extendable antenna. My phone then was more modern, and even it was a refurbished Ma Bell special. Now, time has stopped for me, apparently, since I still have that one 25+ years later.
 
My waterwell records are gone due to conversion to digital. Paper records are lost/destroyed & digital didn't make the conversion.
EMF could destroy all electronics. That's why I'll keep my old Dodge with the Cummins and mechanical fuel pump-should still be able to run until the fuel runs out.
 
Originally Posted by wdn
If the library has a computerized card catalog, you still could not find anything.


Yeah, and imagine if you had to ask Conan the Librarian
 
Originally Posted by Al
Think about what you did before the internet. That's the answer.

Rely on half-truths and myths as perpetuated by car mags, friends, counter salesman and stories about how a friend's brother's uncle's girlfriend's acquaintance once tried xyz and the car caught fire--so never do that--?
 
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