County seeking additional grant funds to digitize court records

County seeking additional grant funds to digitize court records

Funds would be used to scan, preserve older documents

news@theeveningtimes.com

Crittenden County has applied for more grant money to help digitize county records in the circuit court.

Court Clerk Terri Hawkins told the Quorum Court that she has applied for a $30,000 grant from Arkansas Association of Counties to buy a scanner so her office can modernize its records.

“Two of the larger counties take a portion of their money and set it aside for smaller counties to do automation for records, and they have extended that to the courtrooms this past year,” Hawkins said.

Hawkins applied for $62,000 last year and received $30,000 which she used to purchase computer hardware and software updates for the clerk’s office.

This time she hopes to use the money to buy a scanner capable of digitizing older records found in oversize bound volumes.

“A scanner is expensive,” Hawkins said. “But it can accommodate the 11 by 17 records books. They’re huge. You can’t lay the old books down because they won’t fit on a regular copier to scan something.”

The scanner will allow her office to transfer those paper records to an electronic format which will both save on storage space and make them more easily accessible to the public.

“And if I get the grant and the scanner we can have it set up for any other county records,” Hawkins said. “I think this will be beneficial to everyone.”

On a related matter, the Quorum Court also discussed the possibility of hiring a firm to come in and scan and digitize other county records.

“There are companies out there that do it and we could contract it to where we get them to where they need to be,” said Justice Lorenzo Parker.

County Clerk Paula Brown said the county also needs to renovate the current records room in the basement.

Numerous records were damaged and destroyed due to water damage when a pipe burst a few years ago.

The room is also not fireproof.

Counties and municipalities are required to keep certain records such as taxes and deeds in perpetuity, many of which are bound in old volumes dating back to the 1800s.

“We had to bring up all the records when the pipe burst,” Brown said. “Something need to be done down there. It’s a good space.”

Hawkins agreed.

“If the room were repaired, it’s a great room,” Hawkins said. “It has a lot of area.”

Hawkins added that many of those old records are in danger of being lost forever because the ink used to record them is fading.

“Some of the deeds records are actually disappearing,” Hawkins said.

“The ink is fading out.

That’s why I am trying to get my stuff scanned.”

Justice Lisa O’Neal agreed that the county needs to scan those records and also index its ordinances to make them easier for citizens to access. County ordinances are also in bound copies but are organized by meeting dates and currently have no searchable index.

“We need to make it more accessible and convenient for the public so they can find those ordinances,” O’Neal said. “If you were looking for a dog leash ordinance there is no way you could find it without going through all those books.”

By Mark Randall