Most genealogists use the online censuses, but sometimes our people aren't in the indexes. When that happens, we need to resort to the "old-fashioned" method of looking at Soundex indexes and census microfilm.

The Soundex indexes were authorized by the federal government. The indexers often used the original documents, and those documents were easier to read than the microfilmed documents. "The Soundex Indexing System," on the National Archive's website provides information about the system. 

I use my on-site genealogical library of books, microfilms, and CDs for client projects. It saves time and money when the resource is next to my computer.