James, what do you mean the documents have to be notarized to be viewed?  Every document recorded in the land records here in VA has to be to be recorded.

In my coverage areas, all but a handful are indexed on computer.  We have the old COTT system in some and we have both versions of the Va supreme court system indexes in many.  The state system is one in which you have a split screen.  One window is the index part and the other window is where you view the images by instrument numbers.  This is the system many are using as it will allow them to easily make the transition to being online.  Our general assembly here in Va is requiring all clerks be online by July 2006 or they will lose their technology funding.  Two that I cover personally are totally indexed in books but to look at the documents you have to go to a computer.  There are no books anymore for the documents.  And our state library in Richmond also has a copy of every clerks office's documents as a back up.

If the state mandates this, I just hope that the Clerk's make it accessible by user name and password to be able to keep track of who is accessing it instead of making it totally public to just anyone.