removing established, workhorse reference texts

When you're in your 20's, you have no idea of the kinds of worries you'll have when you're (ahem) older. How could I have ever guessed that I would be losing precious sleep over Twentieth Literary Criticism and Current Biography? Life is strange. In the last month, I removed something like 250 volumes of these august reference works. They were very dusty, largely unused and they required indexes. oh my. But after you've tossed a key word into a database and seconds later receive the full-text review or biography, well, there's just no going back. I grieve those books like I grieve a way of life that's gone. The day I finally finished removing Lit Crit, I had a question ( of course) that challenged the wisdom of sending the print volumes to an unclear fate. I actually had to walk back to the quiet room and use Reader's Guide and Book Review Index to locate a review from 1982. Guess what? The review was available...the whole thing...in Academic Search Premier. So what if we lose internet or we lose funding for databases? So what if cell phone towers were destroyed. "What if" is a game for scholars. What if angels sat on pinheads" (Lion in Winter)