The Encyclopedia Brittanica, they advertised that shit constantly on nickelodeon. That and Encarta, a good old disc of knowledge. I suppose OP is unfamiliar, and that’s fine, but I’m not sure I can stretch it to thinking that there were just absolutely no resources available.

And it also comes down to you weren’t aware you could get that knowledge instantly, and so you didn’t miss it, per se. I did research papers on whomever in grade school and I went to the library and pulled out a couple books, mainly for the sake of padding the bibliography.

I was in eighth grade when wiki showed up, and by high school it became “no wikipedia” as a policy, but at that point, savvy enough individuals were using wiki for it’s bibliography.

And so, in short, the change wasn’t super pronounced. If I had a desire to learn something, I’d figure out some way to go learn it. The convenience is obviously there, though, I certainly don’t want to take anything away from wiki and what it’s done.