Working at a third-tier institution is not all wine and roses. Trying to get research done with an ill-equipped library is pretty rough. And, yes, I hear all of you out there talking about Anna’s Archive, but no gray- or blackmarket website should be an excuse for an institution not taking its responsibility to support research and teaching seriously.
The library at my university has not had a serious book budget since 2005, which means that the last 20 years of humanities scholarship is missing from the shelves. Instead, we are offered ebooks that the library rents from various services:
And search results are often deceiving: you think you have access to a book, but you really don’t:
So many copies! But you only get 60 pages if you elect not to use Adobe’s HellScape app.
I’m afraid the results for journals is perhaps even worse, with out card catalog often woefully unaware that some journals exist. Take for example my recent search for Language and Literature:
I’m not sure what journal that is, but the journal I had in mind is:
But we don’t have it, along with dozens and dozens of other journals.