[Javascript] Controlling Page Scroll Position

[fairwinds at eastlink.ca (David Pratt)]

Hi.  I am putting together a relational database application in python. 
I
have put together a pager to batch records (20 per page) but do not
want the browser scroll bars to reset to the top of the browser each 
time
the pager is advanced to the previous or next page. The normal behavior
is fine for everything else on the page but the anchor tags for my batch
page links and table column titles anchor tags (that the user clicks to
change the sort order of the items listed in the table).

Instead of resetting when a new page is selected, I want the vertical
scrollbar to maintain its  position so when the link is clicked, the
vertical scrollbar position is passed to the next page (so the page
does not jerk to the top but stay in the same position to user's are not
forced to pull the page down to the table to see the results.

I am using css to style anchor tags as buttons and am currently passing
the record start position for the page to the next page.
ie   <a class="page_plain"
href="https://mydomain.com/path/index_html?start:int=20";>2</a>

I am assuming the best way of handling this would be to pass the
current vertical scroll position as a parameter to a JavaScript.  Does
anyone have such a solution or other advice for solving this?

Regards,
David