US college libraries do pay per-article fees. Most offer an "interlibrary loan" service where faculty and students can request a specific article from a journal

US college libraries do pay per-article fees. Most offer an "interlibrary loan" service where faculty and students can request a specific article from a journal the library doesn't subscribe to. Depending on the journal's licensing and the library's partnerships, the library may get a copy from another library for free, or purchase the article. If a purchase is made, part of the cost may or may not be passed on to the end user (at my library charges are rare and I doubt most end users even know a per-article fee was paid on their behalf). In cases where requests for articles from a particular journal are rare, this may be more cost effective for the library than subscribing to the journal. Of course this can happen only when the end user uses the formal interlibrary loan process, instead of alternatives like Sci-Hub (which may be faster and easier). As with the high subscription prices, the primary mark is not faculty/students but libraries, who are expected to provide the content and constrained from doing anything blatantly illegal to get it.