As weird as it sounds, one of the main reasons I check out books from the campus library is because it's the most convenient way to access them. I do a quick search of the titles in my professor's course bibliography (shout out to great catalog search technology), go to the library, and find the books! Of course, journal articles are a different story and they are definitely more accessible online. On the other hand, I love the collaborative workspace concept, but the way my school tackled that was by compressing the stacks with the sliding bookshelf mechanism where you press the button to open up the corridor so we got more study space and we keep the books. Lucky us, I guess!? On a separate note, Haaah. Yes, we need to have a real conversation about concision in academic texts. But is this a modern attention span problem or a long-standing issue where researchers just want to optimize their reading time? I have a feeling it's the latter. “We learn to read books and articles quickly, under pressure, for the key points or for what we can use. But we write as if a learned gentleman of leisure sits in a paneled study, savoring every word.”