The Ala. Archives has a wealth of information on Monroe County! It sounds like the empty shelves mentioned are in the general reference reading room. Cemetery books, general genealogies, etc. are put there and are organized by county for quick location. A useful item at ADHA is the microfilm of the clippings file that the Archive maintained for years. I found newspaper articles and letters from other researchers of the Middleton family in this film. The Alabama Public Library Service maintains Alicat (http://www.apls.state.al.us/) an online catalog of information from a wide variety of Alabama libraries. Use the search feature to search for "Monroe" and you find many, many items. You have to match the library abbreviation to the key to determine the location(s) of the particular items. The ADHA is included in this cooperative and you can identify the items that you want to review prior to going to the Archives. This is an invaluable time saver! Yr. Obt. Svt., D. A. Bass-Frazier