How did students write papers before major online journal databases existed?

This is not a facetious “haha look at our technological generation”, it’s exactly what it says. Current students have access to Jstor, Academic OneFile, etc. meaning we can access thousands upon thousands of scholarly journals instantly. How did you write papers before that was possible. If your school didn’t have access to certain journals, books, etc did you just have to go on without them? (This doesn’t include Masters Thesis work in which generally you would travel to do your own research if it’s that important, but general papers).