If it's expected of university students that they find their own way among the zillion books they could pick up, I think it's totally reasonable for them to feel anxiety. You invoke farming as an activity that it's legitimate to worry about, but consider the collective aspect of farming communities versus the individualistic norm of the modern university. There's a problem here, and it's not clever or helpful to tell people to just toughen up.

Personally I have never liked working in libraries though I do enjoy browsing the shelves. University libraries are a distracting environment if you are even slightly aware of the hectic activity and volume of material that's going on around you/stored on the shelves.