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I have now had the following experience with at least three graduate students in the last ten years: in our weekly meeting, they mention that they needed to locate a key article or book for their research project, but despite searching all over the internet, they are unable to find it. I then ask if they have checked our local Science and Engineering Library, which is literally in the same building as the Math Department. Ten years ago, the response would be embarrassment that this option did not occur to them; but now, the response is surprise that a library containing physical copies of math journals and textbooks even existed.

Perhaps physical libraries are a vestigial remnant of a pre-digital era, but I do have fond memories as a graduate student of randomly browsing books next to the ones I had been looking for, or articles after or preceding the one I was initially locating. The current technological paradigm of being able to near-instantly locate nearly any article one desires (assuming one's university has a subscription to the relevant journals) is undeniably convenient, but has reduced the opportunity for serendipitious discovery. (On the other hand, there are other ways now to make such discoveries, for instance through browsing math question-and-answer sites or math-oriented social media.)