By the time you read this editorial, Pacific Conservation Biology may be fully online (http://www.informit.com.au/ ? see access instructions at the end of this article, or check for a link on the journal web site at http://pcb.murdoch.edu.au/). With support from the Oceania Section of the Society for Conservation Biology (http://www.conbio.org/Sections/Oceania), all back issues of Pacific Conservation Biology, not already in pdf format, have been scanned and made electronically friendly. Researchers, students and anyone interested in conservation biology in the Pacific Region will now be able to access Pacific Conservation Biology archives through subscribing libraries, by purchasing a specific article on-line or consulting an article for a pay per view fee. For most of us, online access to journals has made the literature easier and faster to use than at any time in the past. It will be a while yet before visits to a library or opening a book are no longer essential to good research, but the day is coming.