Omitted sentence ?

With the general accessibility of photocopiers in student libraries, students tend to copy the relevant material for later use. In such cases the students are not always selective about what they copy. Often useless material is gathered that may seem important at the time but does not seem so in their study room on the night before an exam or essay due date. In addition, when most people photocopy material from books, they feel as if they have actually accomplished something. After all, a few photocopied pages in their notebook now represent information that used to be in a big, thick book. The reality of the situation is that nothing significant has been accomplished yet. The student only has the information in a transportable form. He or she has not learned anything from the material. The information content of the photocopied sheets is just as foreign as if it had been left on the library shelf (it would have been foreign)

Based on the context, I think 'it would have been foreign' is omitted, but I'm not sure.

What do you think about it?