The publication contains the contributions and the evening lecture from the joint meeting of the "Digitales Archiv der Reformation" (Digital Archive of the Reformation) project and the Department of Church History at the Friedrich-Schiller-University in Jena under the heading "Reformation vor Ort. Zum Quellenwert von Visitationsprotokollen" (Reformation on the ground. On the significance of visitation reports as a source of information), which took place in Jena in 2014. It focuses on the first Protestant visitations in the central German territories and the written records thereof - the visitation reports. The essays show the relevance of these important documents as source material for scientific historiography and local historical research from different perspectives. They also examine the requirements and limitations of digital editions on the Internet.