Some references were elusive. One important paper about a topic of study took months to track down, saved by interlibrary loan from another county.

Not long ago, 2007 or so, I was researching the history of an important mining camp. I had numerous references to a history book written in 1860 – first hand account of all the mines in the district. Found it in the special collections of the University library. To read it, I had to make an appointment, was escorted to a dark basement room, and was not allowed to bring anything but index cards and a pencil. Had to wear gloves. This book was dense with detail and I spent hours taking notes under the watching gaze of the librarian. Not how I like to study. Then, a few months later, I find it on Google books. I could download all 500 pages as a pdf and search by keyword. It was like Christmas morning and my birthday.

In my parent’s day it was even worse- they had to consult the tribe elder and pay him with rabbit pelts so he would tell them the location of the cave where they could find the information they sought painted on it’s rock walls.

I found this gem on microfilm (probably around 1999), after hours of searching: https://www.nature.com/articles/058367a0.pdf – the first published ‘scientific’ speculation on the existence of anti-matter in 1898… with the wonderful line “Astronomy, the oldest and yet most juvenile of sciences, may still have some surprises in store.”

I found that article at the Brookhaven National Lab library (I wonder if it still exists?) when I was a graduate student preparing a talk on exotic atoms and how they could be used to test fundamental physics… Science journals were still in the process of transitioning to on-line… This would have been around the time of the proto-zone- when we were all still arguing on the old MSNBC science board…

Back then if you wanted to share a funny cat picture, you had to take the picture (on FILM!!!), get it developed, caption it by hand (no photo-shop), then carefully put it in an envelope and take it to the post office and mail it directly to it’s intended recipient. (Jody’s business model for mass distribution of nauseating cat pictures would have been completely unworkable back then)…

I suspect the ability to sit comfortably on your sofa and browse nearly every scientific journal in publication, and search it for keywords is probably the most valuable development in science since the invention of the printing press.

The kids these days will never know what its like to not have the accumulated knowledge of humanity at their fingertips- sadly, they use it to find out who Ariana Grande is dating this week.

So you see, saving you one click forces me to a whole lot of effort of learning whatever-the-hell HTML is and how to use it.

Its just not worth the trouble. My time is short, and fast running out. Learning yet another software tool that will probably be obsolete before I master it is not a wise way to spend it.