I have recently been working with other state archivists and their staff on the issue of providing online access to primary resources. Many states have been approached by vendors (Ancestry.com, iArchives and Genealogical Society of Utah to name a few) interested in developing a business relationship to provide online access to original documents. The Council of State Archivists created a task force, the Online Content Providers Task Force, to deal with the issues surrounding such relationships. The result is a statement of intent, guidelines and issues to consider while working on any digitization project. You may access the online statement at: www.statearchivists.org
If you have any questions about the statement please contact me directly at the Archives of Michigan.
The Anecdotal Archivist 
As an avid genealogist I am very interested to see how the task force is progressing towards making original documents available online through the library or a company such as Ancestry.
We should have some exciting news about this in the next couple months.
I, too, am very interested in having digital records available but am concerned about having to subscribe to a specific service since I feel our taxes support the State Archives. I would be upset if I were not be able to view the records when I go to Lansing because of some agreement with a commercial company.
Look what happened to the Catholic Church records at the Burton Collection at the main Detroit Public Library. They are supposed to be available to the general public, with some limitations on the dates, according to what I was told by the former archivist at the Archdiocese, yet, as a non-resident of Detroit, I have to pay $10.00 each time I visit and use the microfilms.
Rather than someone like Ancestry, has the State ever been approached by the Mormon Church?
We are hosting a reunion for the former patients, employees, physicians, and volunteers of the Children’s Free Hospital in Farmington. The blog will provide further background. I found this site on-line, and wondered if you have record of any the medical records from the former hospital. In our own investigative work, we have since been able to determine that some of the Sister Kenny Polio Hospital records may be at the Bentley Historical Library at U of M. The balance of the records remains in question as to their resting place. Former patients are very interested in locating their records. Do you have any idea where they might begin to find them via your Archival network?