The most significant event in the development of the Alexandria Digital Library (ADL) in 1996 was the testing, by more that 2,000 registered users, of the ADL's Web Prototype (WP). In addition to providing invaluable feedback on the appearance, usability, and content of the WP, the testing process identified major system bottlenecks that the Implementation Team began to address in 1996. The experience of keeping the system ``live'' for continuous testing also provided input to the ongoing design of an operational ADL.