PLA conference in Minneapolis was a blast - so much information, so much great interaction among the 10,000 or so participants. One of the most interesting presentations I attended was given by a professor from the U/W. Besides being a smart, entertaining goofball, he brought up a lot of relevant points. He presented Google (among other things) as a replacement for ready reference, a guide, to be used by librarians, but with wisdom, hopefully, such as using the fine points available before "normal people" become cognizant of them, acknowledging the weaknesses (Google scholar just isn't up to snuff yet, for instance), and proceeding forward, gently, from Google to in-depth resources relevant to the query.
Wikipedia he saw as a necessary evil and advised: if you're not happy with something in Wikipedia, fix it! Get in the fray, do your part and if masses of librarians do, then Wikipedia is ever so much more useful again. Print reference is all but dead, anyway - -
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