The trick to handle it well is easy access to catalog and ability to recall books from storage.

Another superpower in some countries is the inter library loan - you might need to befriend the local library to utilise it fully, but a classmate of mine in high school used it as effectively free pass to university libraries that you can't borrow books from when you're not suffering or faculty.

Where I live now, a large fraction of the suburban libraries are part of a consortium (SWAN—covering mostly south and western suburbs of Chicago). They have a shared catalog and any book/CD/DVD/etc.¹ can be requested right out of the catalog for pickup at my local library.

In California, I think you can get a library card at any public library system as long as you’re a California resident. At one point I had cards for L.A. County, Orange County, Beverly Hills, L.A. City and Santa Ana.

Many public libraries will do ILL for books outside their system for free, although that’s generally funded with money from the federal government which Musk and his band of hackers have decided it’s vital to eliminate.

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1. Well, mostly. A few libraries won’t send out CDs or DVDs but you can still check them out with your card if you go to that branch and then return it at your home library.

> suffering or faculty

I assume this is a typo, but it’s brilliant.

The books don't get put in storage in most places, they get thrown away.

> but a classmate of mine in high school used it as effectively free pass to university libraries that you can't borrow books from when you're not suffering or faculty.

The mass de-accessioning of older books is such a huge problem you often cannot find (even famous!) works through ILL anymore.