Back in the  1980s when I first embarked on historical investigations,  the US State Department had its own analog, paper-based Wiki that covered almost every diplomatic dispatch going
back centuries, millions of three by five inch index cards. And  each told a story.

It was amazing to go through those old cards to find what you were researching.

Then when there were upgrades and budget cuts, those file cards were put no microfilm, making it tedious and boring to find what you wanted. As well you could miss things in rapid scrolling of the microfilm.

UPDATE  2024,  many of those files have now been digitized and indexed and so it is easy to find what you are looking for without the expense of flying to Washington (or to most other archives).

Original posting linked to a story I wrote for CBC.ca in 2010 before I retired about records of lynching.  That page no longer exists.