With the Web, I can do all the same things from home.
Many journals, including the PNAS, currently have free access to the electronic versions of their printed text.
Some, in addition to the table of contents, include abstracts and full text of the articles.
These sites are often fully search-able on author, institution, or topic of interest.
And if youre really crunched for time, there are journal abstraction services like JournalWatch that will scan and summarize many medical publications.