The VEN.I.V.A. (Venetian Virtual Archives) project started in November 1995 and is being financed by the European Union through the ESPRIT program which is responsible for innovations in technology. Private firms and cultural organizations from three European countries —Italy, Austria, and Greece— collaborate towards realization of the project. The material dealt with by VEN.I.V.A. is the various records and documents, dating from the Medieval period to 1797, that are kept in libraries and archives. VEN.I.V.A. aims at the creation of a consultation system of archival and bibliographic material belonging to different organizations, which will be available on the Internet. The organizations will be virtually connected so that both on-site and on-line users will have access to the same documents through a series of free and added-value services. There is a description of the VEN.I.V.A. project in the http://www.tin.it/veniva, and a first presentation of the “virtual archive” at the net address http:// www.tin.it/ veniva/aw/archivto/isp/veniva.htm.