On 'research' ...

[Shuddhasattva]

The internet is a a wonderful research tool. Google is only a gateway, a portal, and as others have mentioned Google Scholar, and journal portals (SpringerLink, JStor, etc.) provide many journals & academic books.

However, I can virtually guarantee anyone who engages in serious, long-term research on a given topic that eventually, you'll run into primary sources, and seminal secondary sources, that you will not be able to find on the internet - except as expensive, often out-of-print hardcopies - but you can find them at libraries (and in cases where this is so, I've seen it nearly evenly split between public libraries and private academic ones), whether on delivery or not.

The internet is not yet a complete substitute. It should be in the next 5-10 years but we need more automated book/manuscript scanning & OCR, as well as more open access.

 

[idav]

Google is a great tool but eventually I had to pick up an actual book. Well a digital one anyway. I lost my library card.

 

[Panda]

I use my university library for both hard copies and e-copies. I also tend to use specialized search engines for academic work. Google is generally no use for my uni work apart from the very basics.

My public library is a piece of crap and for fiction I tend to read e-books or listen to audio books.

 

[LegionOnomaMoi]

I use my university library for both hard copies and e-copies. I also tend to use specialized search engines for academic work. Google is generally no use for my uni work apart from the very basics.

My public library is a piece of crap and for fiction I tend to read e-books or listen to audio books.

Have you used google scholar? In addition to the possibility that you may find at least drafts of articles you don't have immediate access to through your university, a lot of university libraries enable you to "link up" with google scholar, so that if (for example), you have access to JSTOR, Academic Search Complete, ProQuest Central, ScienceDirect, and so forth, searching google scholar will allow you to access journals and other electronic sources directly by synching up the databases you have access to with your search results, which can be quite useful as you don't need to search several databases.