Library Genesis is great, but it doesn't have much in terms of journal articles. sci-hub did but the attacks on them in Indian courts have made it so they haven't been able to upload new articles since Dec 2020. They only have pre-2020 articles. Anna's archive is basically just a combo of those two sources and some others things.
I really, really miss sci-hub and being able to read research papers. Before sci-hub there were a handful of forums for requesting and fulfilling full text papers. But those forums basically died because sci-hub was so easy and useful. And now that sci-hub is dead there's nothing.
sci-hub is still very much alive. It's just new papers are available under an alternate service called the Standard Template Construct. The STC uses IPFS to distribute the papers instead of hosting them themselves which mostly protects it.
I want to believe. I've never seen mention of STC but I am searching now. That said, when I try to access modern articles through sci-hub they aren't even there, there's no ipfs URI to download to start.
http://standard-template-construct.org/ just errors out with 422 unprocessable content. I assume the ipfs proxies are blocking it or the like. So... do I have to run a local IPFS client to access STC? I guess I'll try.
Community college libraries usually have access to the same databases as other higher ed institutions. CC tuition for a single class varies, but under a couple hundred bucks is typical.
The grade goes on your record, though. The time investment to complete the course with a satisfactory grade would negate the time I have to read the material.
Auditing classes, when allowed, gives you access to everything being enrolled typically does, for the same cost, without any grade associated with it.
And your academic "record" only matters if you plan on getting additional advanced degrees in the future. If you have a degree or two already you lose nothing by having a half-dozen Fs from community college classes a decade later.
And that's only if someone found out you were enrolled in that community college in the first place. Unless you're applying at, maybe, the NSA, no HR department is going to call around to all the local schools to see if perchance you took a class there.
You can check with your local CC if being enrolled is even required. The one near me lets you register as a "community patron" (for free, I believe) with limited borrowing privileges if you live in the area.
Pricing for academic materials is nonsensical, but you can usually find a way to get free or cheap access as an individual learner if you go through libraries.