Friends: I stumbled on this news item on open access to US archival information. With the Right to Information we in India should also have such access to government information. ---- National Archives and Records Administration Source: AP Archives Smooths Web Access to Records If you ever used the Access to Archival Databases (AAD) from the National Archives of the U.S. it was a pain in the rear. You had to search one database at a time. Well, that's changed. Yes, it's another example of meta or federated searching coming to life. From the AP article: "The revamped Access to Archival Databases site -- http://aad.archives.gov/aad/ -- allows the public to search for free through 85 million documents in 475 files amassed by more than 30 federal agencies." From the site itself, "...Feature global free- text searching across all series and files, in addition to our standard fielded search, and easier and faster ways to find the series and files you want!" Thanks to Randy H. for the news tip. I think the challenge now will being getting reaching these databases. I've been having trouble for the past hour. --- Subbiah Arunachalam