One of the elements of our Web site, pressrepublican.com, for which we receive voluminous use by the public, is our archives, wherein readers can find material in past issues of our newspaper. If a newspaper is the analogue of a community's library, the Web site is the card catalogue.

The Press-Republican has been developing its Web site since 1999.

One of the guiding principles that has always been applied was reader need for information that only we, as the historic regional newspaper, had. We had microfilm and bound newspaper volumes, but nothing had been comprehensively catalogued.

Then came the Internet, the latest, and by far the greatest, communication miracle. If we could only marshal all the information we'd accumulated over the past two centuries, we could present it as a library presents books. All we needed was that card catalogue.

Just last week, our Web caretakers, Roger Black and Aaron Stanley, created that card catalogue and launched a new and improved News and Obituaries Archives section on the site that readers should find speeds them to the information they seek with great ease and efficiency.

The information is available by simply clicking on "Search Archives" in the main navigation menu found on every page of pressrepublican.com.

There are several searchable archives within the main Archives section:

Current Archives -- includes News, Sports, Opinion (editorials, Letters to the Editor, In My Opinion), Columns, Entertainment (Out & About) articles published online between April 2007 and the present.

Old Archives -- includes News, Sports, Opinion (Editorials, Letters to the editor, In My Opinion), Columns, Entertainment (Out & About) articles published online between Jan. 1, 1999 (when the site was launched) and April 2007.

Very Old Archives -- links to scanned images of old Press-Republican newspaper pages and predecessors of the Press-Republican -- the Plattsburgh Sentinel and the Plattsburgh Republican. These images and the site that hosts them are part of the Northern New York Library Network. At this time, the Very Old Archives Section includes newspaper editions from the following periods: Press-Republican 1959-1992; Plattsburgh Sentinel 1866-1931; Plattsburgh Republican 1811-1820.

Current Obituaries -- recent and the past 12 months of obituaries and death notices published in the Press-Republican.

Old Obituaries -- obituaries published in the Press-Republican between April 1999 and August 2007.

The Archives Section now includes 48,000 news and sports articles and 16,000 obituaries and death notices.

That should keep you busy -- and well informed.