Shortly after the Web was born, the volume of Internet content easily outstripped the Library of Congress, a library whose mandate is to acquire every published work in the world. The Library of Congress has long realized it cannot completely realize its mission. But that mandate is being partly realized on the Internet.

While the Web is many things to many people, it has often been described as the largest library in the world. In actuality, it is more like an endless sea of libraries, each of which houses a special collection. Today these special collections are more often referred to as Internet document repositories.

Using the Internet to store electronic files in a coherent, organized way was one of its first practical uses. Not long after the Internet's origin, business people as well as publishers began to realize the value of having a virtual location where information could be securely stored and managed using the latest information management tools.

Many companies were already in the business of helping organizations build and maintain specialized collections of documents. Ikon Business Solutions, Quorum Legal Services, Lexis/Nexis, Dialog, and Westlaw-to name only a few-simply migrated certain parts of their document-management business to the Web. These companies, at various times, have offered access to specialized, digitized collections of information via private networks. Those networks, some still in use today, duplicated a telecommunications and database infrastructure at considerable expense. Today, secure virtual private networks (VPNs) make it possible to offer Internet document repositories at a fraction of the cost of the old VPNs.

Internet document repositories actually come in three varieties: public and free services, fee-based commercial services, and private commercial services. The public and free variety could be thought of as huge (and growing) public libraries where users can browse through virtual shelves for classic publications converted into digital form. Using these services you can acquire the full-text of the King James Bible (plus plenty of other versions), the complete works of Shakespeare, or any one of thousands of other titles--both classic and less well known.

Fee-based commercial services cost money. And their purpose is entirely different than the public, free Internet repositories. The mission for most commercial repositories boils down to a specific purpose. Today there are document repositories on the Internet that include the full-text of primary and secondary laws, the technical manuals for a company's industrial product, or a commercial best-seller. These texts can be acquired, or licensed and used online, often with much more power and functionality than their old printed counterparts. And finally, private commercial Internet document repositories are created by specialized companies for specific purposes, and are made available at secure locations for a select few. These specialized libraries, or virtual filing rooms, can contain images, coded documents, full-text databases, and an assortment of other digital information whose purpose is to support one specific mission. This information can be set up so no one (regardless of hacking prowess or expertise) can open its door without the right security.

With today's Internet repository services, you can also create your own virtual filing rooms, and have the finest minds in the business oversee and manage them.

Cary Griffith's day job-building Web sites and electronic books-keeps him abreast of the latest trends in Internet publishing.

Selected Internet Document Repository Sites

Internet document repositories come in three varieties: public and free, fee-based commercial services, and private commercial services.

Public and Free Internet Repositories

The Internet is a library fit for a world of emperors and kings. Increasingly, with services like the Gutenberg Project, the Online Books Page, or the Internet Public Library, more and more out-of-print and out-of-copyright books, many of them classics, can be found online-for free.

Would you like to download the complete works of Shakespeare? How about "Alice in Wonderland," or the King James Bible? All three of these titles, plus thousands of others are available on Project Gutenberg http://sailor.gutenberg.org The Project Gutenberg mission is to make available as many texts as possible in digital form, in a format most computers can read and use. To that end, titles can always be downloaded in ASCII format, and often other formats. If you're curious, you can easily search Gutenberg's entire holdings by author and title. You can also browse the collection by year.

Do you want to know if the full-text edition of a particular title is available on the Internet? If so, you should visit the Online Books Page http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/lists.html

Here you'll also find an easy-to-use listing by author or title, with links to the Internet location for the title. In order to be listed on this site, works must be considered a significant book in English, available in the full-text in a stable, clear format-and for free.

The Online Books Page is really a huge virtual index, and as such, differs from most of the other sites listed here. Still, it's an excellent finding tool and will lead you to some of the largest document repositories in the world.

The Internet Public Library http://www.ipl.org is another site containing plenty of free full-text titles. Run by librarians for librarians, this site strives to separate the chaff from the solid kernel. Part of the site's mission is to "serve the public by finding, evaluating, selecting, organizing, describing, and creating quality information resources." To date the Internet Public Library contains over 12,000 titles that can be browsed by author, title, and--for those who don't want to mess around--Dewey Decimal classification number.

Fee-based Internet Document Repositories

Not surprisingly, commercial, fee-based document repositories can be found all over the Net. Subject-specific professional services (legal, medical, business management, etc.) are the best candidates for this kind of information.

Two excellent examples of fee-based Internet document repositories specifically created for lawyers include Lexis/Nexis and Westlaw. Lexis/Nexis http://www.lexis-nexis.com/lncc and Westlaw http://www.westlaw.com are both huge law libraries providing primary and secondary legal materials to the legal community for a fee. The cost of these services is not insignificant-usually around $20 per research question. But both of these services are comprehensive. If it's access to the law you want, these specialized Internet document repositories will give it to you. And Lexis/Nexis doesn't just have law information, but hundreds of other categories as well.

Commercial, Private Internet Document Repositories

For a simple approach to providing document repository services on the Internet, consider Global Repository http://www.globalrepository.com. Three introductory sentences and four links are a deceptively low-key introduction to the service. Links enable users to view any one of three industry-specific demos (litigation support, patient records, or corporate records), as well as easily contact the company or view the rest of the site's offerings.

Originally called Document Repository Inc., Casecentral.com http://www.casecentral.com was set up to assist lawyers with creating and maintaining document collections relating to a specific case or project. Billed as the Internet Litigation Management Company, Casecentral.com is designed to tell you everything you want to know about its business, as well as give you access to an online demonstration of a litigation support database.

Quorum, a Lanier company http://www.quorumlanier.com is also set up to provide lawyers with access to specialized, highly secure document collections related to a specific legal case or project. This site will tell you everything you wanted to know about legal document repository services (coding, imaging, scanning, etc.), as well as give you access to a demo of its services.

-C.G.