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Kind of "all of the above". It really depends on the book, the author, and the level of trust I place in the recommending venue to have tastes sufficiently similar to my own.
Some books are "keepers" which I revisit every so often, some books are "read and forget", and some books (unfortunately) were "read and regret". The latter two categories are perfect for the use of my library tax-paying dollars (though not necessarily the use of my time).
There are a bare handful of authors whose works I basically pre-order sight unseen because I have that much trust in them. It would be nice if I could read those releases for free from the library first, but basically they've repeatedly proven themselves to be enjoyable enough that I'm willing to go along with what they provide next, though if it turns to be a dud that's the start of a new series, I may pass on immediately picking up the sequels.
There are some authors with some titles I really enjoy to the point where I'd like to have my own if it's offered at a reasonable cost, other titles I'm pleased to have read and be able to access in the library, and still other titles that I'm really glad I didn't personally pay money to read.
For my preferred-but-not-absolute-favourite authors who've got a lot of stuff out, I do like to be able to try a reasonable amount of their works new or old in full before deciding to commit to a purchase, though I'll still splurge if a book seems very promising from the premise and sample and the price is good.
Generally if a book is in the library and I pretty much enjoyed it, but not enough that I want my own copy, I wouldn't bother getting a copy anyway, unless it happens to be available dirt cheap (regular or special-discount price). I've picked up some marginal-to-me books that I'd otherwise be pleased to leave as library reads because the e-book was offered at such a low price that I was willing to spend extra to support an author whom I otherwise likely wouldn't have bought in space-cluttering paperback unless perhaps there were donated volumes available at the library sale/bargain bin special at the local used bookshop.
I do consider myself to be a fairly cautious and picky buyer and will extremely rarely blind-buy and like to have a wide variety of samples available before committing to purchase.
But once an author/outlet has proven themselves, I often go and scoop a big chunk of the lot of what's available at good prices, and I can count at least a dozen new-to-me authors in the past year alone for whom I've bought nearly all their low-priced stuff in e-book format during sales after either first encountering via the library or from reading an e-book which was free or cost me < $3* on sale for an introductory volume of their work.
* < $5 for highly-recommended award-nominee-type authors in my favourite fiction genres, but those were far rarer and the higher the initial pricing goes, the pickier and more balky I get and they have to have some real acclaim and very good reputations before I'll bite.
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