Digital imaging: storing,
retrieving documents made easy
Record-keepers to swap information on technology this week

All over the country, county offices that handle a flurry of paperwork are using digital imaging - taking pictures of documents - to store and quickly retrieve documents.

To stay on the cutting edge of this fast-developing field, county record-keepers will gather this week in Washington at the NACo Legislative Conference to swap stories about the latest technologies, said Maxine Olson-Hill, Burleigh County, N.D. register of deeds and president of the National Association of County Recorders, Election Officials and Clerks (NACRC), a NACo affiliate.

Burleigh County first to try digital imaging in North Dakota
Olson-Hill said her office began using digital imaging about a year-and-a-half ago, with a start-up cost of $120,000, which she said may not sound like a "large amount" to some counties but was considered a "big investment" for Burleigh County. Her office scans 12,000 documents per year.

Burleigh is the first county to use the technology in North Dakota. "There are about a half-dozen other counties looking at" using the same system, she said. "We are still quite behind in changing to the information age. We have lots of rural counties. They know they need to change."

"The Internet has changed everything," Olson-Hill said. "The public is getting spoiled and wants to get their information quicker and more complete."

Paperless office
"The ultimate goal" of digital imaging, says Washington County, Pa. Recorder of Deeds Deborah Bardella "is to become a paperless office."

Residents of Washington County can look at documents in Bardella's office at one of four computer terminals accessible to the public.

In El Paso County, Colo., the public does not have computer access at the county offices, "but that's a goal of ours," said Dean Buck, systems administrator for the El Paso County Clerk and Recorder's Office, where both the recorder's office and the election department are using digital imaging. J. Patrick Kelly, El Paso County clerk and recorder, chairs NACRC's Records Management Program Committee.

Buck notes that the biggest advantage to scanning papers "is in the speedy retrieval" of the documents.

He finds out what's new in the field by attending meetings of the Association of Record Managers and Administration.

Another goal for the county, Buck says, is to make the documents accessible to the public on the Internet.