If you wanted some standard text like the constitution, university and public libraries were usually an available source, but definitely not "at your fingertips" by any means.
Encyclopedia put it at your fingertips. Our household had
a general Encyclopedia Americana, then specialty encyclopedias for subjects such as science, the occult, and a couple others not coming to mind at the moment. Most kids I knew had at least a basic encyclopedia at home. I mean...
how else would you do your homework?