I was extremely surprised to learn that the Archives don't subscribe to the Access Nova Scotia land and property database which makes searching for old deeds so simple. After pointing me in the general direction of the deed resources, staff admitted they really didn't know how to find deeds and suggested I let them know if I figured it out. I did figure it out and I wasn't impressed. First, you look at a microfilmed index organized by name (sometimes too blurry to make out book and page numbers) and if you're lucky enough to find a book and page number, you have to find the microfilm containing that book and scan through it to locate the file. I spent an hour trying to find 2 deeds for which I already had the book and page number. By contrast, using the Access Nova Scotia database available at any motor vehicle license building, you type in the name of your ancestors and up pops a list of all the deeds from 1764. You simply click on a thumbnail of the deed to view it. I was able to locate more than 30 deeds in an hour spent at Access Nova Scotia on my previous visit to Nova Scotia.
There are also more wills and will indices available online at Family Search than there are at the Archives.
On the positive side, they have very nice microfilm readers which allow you to save anything you like onto a USB thumb drive. And they let you find and put back your own microfilm reels. This open policy made little sense given their Fort Knox mentality policy about accessing books or single photocopies. I was able to find original birth records for the children of Jonathan Ripley and Jane Cunningham but only because I already had the PANS number for the microfilm I needed. And I had a nice visit with my 2nd cousin Robert Ripley in the evening.
In the future I would only visit the Archives in person if I want to look at records for which I already have the PANS number, such as the estate papers of DesBarres or Henry Denny Denson. If you're a beginning researcher, you're much better off visiting a local centre such as the Cumberland County Genealogical Society.