We at the Library of Virginia are always pleased to receive compliments on our work, and we too wish that more of our holdings could be instantaneously and inexpensively made available to everybody. That, however, is not possible. The expense of digitizing documents in legible form and of maintaining them online is very high, and our holdings continue to grow. At last estimate, we had nearly 100,000,000 archival and manuscript items, many of them in the form of large volumes with hundreds of pages each. No research library (not the Library of Congress, not the National Archvies, not the wealthiest universities) has put more than a tiny fraction of its holdings on line. As for microfilmed documents, the Library of Virginia holds microfilm of virtually all extant county and city deed, order, and will books through the Civil War, and for many counties for later dates, as well. We also have hundreds of reels of court documents from some counties and from state government agencies, church and business records, personal papers, and other documents of great value and interest. As a person who spends nearly all my time researching aspects of Virginia history, I am very grateful for all the assistance I can get online, but I realize that research often requires a personal visit to a repository, and I am confident that it always will. Brent Tarter The Library of Virginia [log in to unmask] Visit the Library of Virginia's web site at http://www.lva.lib.va.us To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html