> When I needed books from my Uni library, I normally had to request them from stacks, so I didn't even need to go into the library to get them. Is that for re

> When I needed books from my Uni library, I normally had to request them from stacks, so I didn't even need to go into the library to get them. Is that for reserved course items? A library where you had to request everything would be completely useless. In my experience you miss out on 80% of interesting books if you do not browse the shelves. Amazon, Worldcat, etc are useless for discovery, particularly for anything published before 1980. Google Books is a little better. Frequently when visiting a new city or town I will drop in on a library to browse the mathematics shelves and take note of any interesting books I should read later. Used bookstores are also interesting but most have no math books.