I used to (wow, come to think of it, circa 26 years ago) I spent time at a local college (I think it’s a university now) library, and for $15 bucks a semester or term, whichever, I could borrow books and access their other services, like copies of articles from journals. If they’d had the wonderful WWW we do now, I’d have been all set. :^)
$15 is a deal. Paying for all those journals is pricey.