I will never tire of walking around in the stacks, browsing the shelves and holding classic books in my hand. But digital resources are simply wonderful.
Last night, I was reading something at home when I suddenly got the urge to dig out an article by Jagdish Bhagwati on capital controls. I could not recall the year or issue, or even the journal--though I knew it was late 1990s and had a hunch that it was in Foreign Affairs.
I got up out of my easy chair and walked to the computer: estimated time about 30 seconds.
With one Google search, I had the issue and journal (May/June 1998 Foreign Affairs): estimated time about 15 seconds.
I click over to the university library, enter my library card number, go to the full text archive and I'm reading the article as a PDF in another 30 seconds.
It was not long ago that such things were only in our dreams.
If I want to be faster, the easy chair needs to be closer to the computer.
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