Records digitization projects show no signs of abating, especially when there has been money available through programs like the Cures Act and American Rescue Plan to modernize record storage. Some counties, though, got started with their plans long before a pandemic and its associated relief funds became part of our common vernacular.
This is the case with the Registry of Deeds in Lincoln County, Maine, which just wrapped up an eight-year project to make their complete files available online. That’s longer than one might expect to make records available online, but the small office responsible for digitizing the records had to go all the way back to 1761, before the founding of the United States. As the second oldest county in the state, Lincoln County is likely working with some of the oldest records available anywhere in the country.
Counties move their records online for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it’s mandated by a new law, some officials like to keep their offices on the cutting edge of new technology, and others can find that digitization is the natural consequence of growth and time. In-person record requests are manageable until they’re not, or until a pandemic or any other type of disruptive force causes in-person visits to be impossible.
What’s particularly interesting in Lincoln County is how much more efficient the project has made the Registry of Deeds. Current Register of Deeds Rebecca Wotton has been in the position for three decades, starting with a staff of eight, down to a staff of two. The staff changes aren’t solely attributed to the availability of online records, but certainly the need to find and pull physical files is a job now outsourced to whomever wants the document.
The office was able to pay for the project through a records management reserve account that collects three dollars when a document is recorded. Because of this foresight, anyone can now look up some of the oldest land records in the country on their website and the office is still able to provide their services effectively to the county.
We always like to remind counties that are considering projects like this to look at automation tools. When counties bring documents online, they can bypass manual indexing and personally identifiable information (PII) redaction using proven software. Technology like Extract’s ID Shield and FLEX Index software convert unstructured, difficult to read files into raw text before applying natural language processing and spatial data to automatically identify index data and PII for filing or redaction.
If you’d like to see some of the customers we’ve helped, please check out our government resources page and if you’re interested in a short conversation or personalized demonstration of our software, send us a note!
About the Author: Chris Mack
Chris is a Marketing Manager at Extract with experience in product development, data analysis, and both traditional and digital marketing. Chris received his bachelor’s degree in English from Bucknell University and has an MBA from the University of Notre Dame. A passionate marketer, Chris strives to make complex ideas more accessible to those around him in a compelling way.