This paper discusses the advantages of encoded digital text over printed text,from a researcher's perspective. The traditional notion of text corpus as a well-consideredcollection of texts is related to the huge amounts of digital textsthat are currently available on the web. After examples of useful digitalizationinitiatives and available digital resources, information is given about the usersand uses of the text corpora stored at the lnstitute for Dutch Lexicology.Attention is paid to some obstacles in building or using text collections. Theconclusion is that up till now the digital medium primarily facilitates researchrather than evokes new linguistic research questions.
