Someone was telling me (I haven't verified it) that the costs of access is charged to students per semester. A trivial (or non trivial for someone cheap like me

Someone was telling me (I haven't verified it) that the costs of access is charged to students per semester. A trivial (or non trivial for someone cheap like me) of $40 a semester. Now, I asked about a dozen people how often they access this resource at the library and none of them had used it. One lecturer enlightened me that some class encourages students to use it but students prefer to not read dense research paper and would rather read articles about the topic and cite the paper. I don't know if colleges SHOULD pay high yearly subscription is the usage is low. But then, people who DO use it are left high and dry. Multiple colleges share books, too bad they can't do the same with these. I don't have the numbers but I wonder what a college is charged and how many full ride scholarships a college would be able to give out with that fee?