Etext encourages the decentralization of information. The Internet provides a fertile ground for distributed retrieval techniques. WAIS, Gopher and World Wide Web to name a few. WAIS allows users to provide relevance feedback to further specialize an initial query. Gopher is primarily a tool for browsing through hierarchically organized documents, but it also allows to search for information using full-text indexes.
Documents also contain indexes which the user can search for current or archived information.
Archiving of digital information is primarily concerned with ensuring that information in digital form endures for future generations. The question of preserving or archiving digital information is not a new one and has been explored at a variety of levels over the last two decades. Archivists have perhaps been most acutely aware of the difficulties as they have observed the rapid and widespread shift from the use of typewriters and other analog media to word processors, spreadsheets and other digital means. Preserving the media on which information is electronically recorded is well understood to be a relatively short-term and partial solution to the general problem of preserving digital information. Even if the media could be physically well-preserved, rapid changes in the means of recording, in the formats for storage, and in the software for use threaten to render the life of information in the digital age quite short.