...in recent years, as the state created searchable databases of more than one million documents and photographs, many more people are working from home.
A quarter-million visit the [New Jersey] State Archives on their computers each year, sometimes getting what they want immediately and other times ordering copies of documents for a fee.
The same is true in Pennsylvania, where hundreds of thousands use the Internet to explore the state archives in Harrisburg.
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But the databases' popularity has reduced visits to both archives. Trenton now has from 7,000 to 8,000 visitors a year. Harrisburg reported a similar decline but had no numbers.
New Jersey's databases "are an essential gateway," said Karl Niederer, director of the state Division of Archives and Records Management. "This will be the way a significant majority of archive users will begin the process of doing their research."
"That's the business model we've adopted," he said. "We're driven by the public's expectation that that's how resources will be made available."
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