A preferred embodiment of the invention relates to a network of interactive printers and the provision of persistent storage of system information. More particularly, the provision of that storage is decoupled from fee-earning activities in the network. That is, it allows a profitable role for a participant who is purely a provider of persistent storage. The printers can access information contained on a system database that is owned and/or operated by a storage provider. The system database includes data indicative of each page that is available to be printed by an interactive printer. That is, the system includes a number of actual physical pages that are printed, each of which correspond to a virtual page represented by the respective page descriptions. While each printed page should have a page description, there may exist page descriptions that do not have actual physical counterparts.