This varies greatly, as most libraries receive some federal funding and as a result are required to allow reasonable public access from my recollection when wor

This varies greatly, as most libraries receive some federal funding and as a result are required to allow reasonable public access from my recollection when working at a private university. In general many libraries include public access computers which aren't great, but at least are on the authorized IP range for accessing the journals. But I would agree that this is not really a good solution for most people as it requires a lot of conditions which aren't always possible: -- close proximity to a University which has a library with such policies -- knowledge of the search systems to be able to find the document in the alloted public access time -- available time during library public hours to do said research More or less most people are blocked from such research without any means aside from very expensive fees to access such data.