Putting Loudoun's History at the Fingertips of Loudoun's Citizens

About the Program

Category: Arts, Culture and Historic Preservation (Best in Category)

Year: 2015

The Clerk of the Circuit Court in Loudoun County possesses a rare treasure in Virginia as all of the court records dating back to 1757 are available for public inspection. These valuable court records are a treasure because out of the 120 circuit court clerks' offices in Virginia, less than 10 percent of those offices have all of the historic records. Many courts and clerks' offices in Virginia had their court records destroyed, burned, stolen or misplaced during the Civil War. Recognizing the significance of these valuable records, the Clerk of Circuit Court in Loudoun County has instituted aggressive preservation programs to protect the records and initiated scanning programs to convert the historic papers to digital images. These ditigal images are posted to the office website and the website for the Library of Virginia so Loudoun's history is literally at the fingertips of Loudoun's citizens. The historic records that have been digitized are also available for review on computers in the Clerk's Office. Providing access to the digital versions of the historic court records reduces the handling of the original papers which assists with longterm preservation of the valuable original court papers, many of which are very fragile.