The Montana State Library plans to close its doors at the start of the year and will instead be offering its resources over the Internet.

The library, open since the 1920s and the main repository for state documents, has not yet announced the decision publicly to those who use its resources, but says it plans to do so soon.

The library said very little will be lost in the transition, although certain services such as walk-in access to a number of newspapers will be gone. State Librarian Darlene Staffeldt said that the few things lost in the transition can be found elsewhere, such as at a local library.

Staffeldt said the library decided it could not offer complete digital access to the library along with offering walk-in service. It decided to focus on digital access.

"We have to focus on one or the other," she said.

The library has been scanning its old documents and archives into a digital format so that they will be available through searches of its Web site.

The documents that have not been scanned yet should be cataloged, though, so that people can find they exist by doing a search, Staffeldt said. A state librarian would then scan the document and e-mail it within a few days, she said.

Currently, a librarian retrieves the archived document and lets the person seeking the item check it out.

But Staffeldt said the new system will offer access to many more people in the state who currently can't travel to the library to look at archives, documents, journals and other information stored there.

She said she expects the new keyword and full-text searches will give more people access to the collection, especially as the librarians busily scan items and put them in digital format.

"It's a process we will be working toward," she said.

Staffeldt said the library's walk-in traffic is very low, but she didn't know exactly how many people used the service.

She said other states are moving to digitize their archives and offer them electronically, but she did not know of any state libraries that had made the move to close the doors.

"I guess it's a big step. It's a logical step," she said. "It's a step that has been happening across the country."

The library's board has authorized the decision to start closing the doors in January, although the exact date could change if preparations for the move are delayed, Staffeldt said. It expects to be a fully digital library shortly thereafter.

Staffeldt said there may be critics as word of the decision spreads.

"We haven't really gone public yet," she said. "We expect there may be a little bit (of pushback) when we do.