The challenges of research

I have been spending some time this morning doing various bits of research.  Some for stories I am creating, some for a grant I am working on, some for prices and products, and all done from the comfort of home.  Doing research for me used to be extremely difficult.  I could not research an essay or assignment without having someone sighted along.  They had to read book titles and skim through books for me.  Then, they had to read the parts of the books I needed out loud into a recording device.  They had to spell out names and unfamiliar words and remember to put in page numbers in case I had to quote something.  I couldn't look things up in a dictionary.  Well, at school for the blind they had a major encyclopedia and dictionary but they each took  up shelves and shelves of space and may have been out of date almost as soon as they were purchased.  Now, I can look things up on line, with my dictionary ap, through google.  I can scan and read books myself.  I can write down book titles to order or try to find electronic versions of them.  How times have changed.