Beginning in 1990, the Cornell Library initiated an ambitious early attempt to create digital surrogates for materials that were rapidly deteriorating and becoming brittle. Utilizing prototype equipment developed in tandem with Xerox, the materials were scanned and placed online. Currently, the materials available include 441 entire monographs, totaling 159,961 pages. The search engine located on the site allows visitors to search the holding by author, title, and text. Additionally, visitors can browse the collection by author or title. The monographs include Shelley's "An address to the Irish people," Comte's "Positive Philosophy," selected writings of Richard Wagner, and Sir Richard Burton's "Personal Narrative of a pilgrimage to el Medinah and Meccah." The Web site concludes with a help section that contains information about searching and browsing this interesting collection of online monographs.