"The Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature is a reference guide to recently published articles in periodical magazines and scholarly journals, organized by article subject. The Readers' Guide has been published regularly since 1901 by The H. W. Wilson Company, and is a staple of public and academic reference libraries throughout the United States; a retrospective index of general periodicals published from 1890 to 1982 is also available.
Originally, The Readers' Guide was published on a biweekly basis, with later issues incorporating the previous content in larger copies until the index for the entire year was published." The reference book pointed the investigator to the original source and then if you were lucky the library had the original source.

Since original sources are now online a computer can find the same information in seconds or less. Checking Facts is not new. To evaluate the Fact Checking Site look at the source of information the bottom of the site and decide if it a reliable source.