SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY CLERK-RECORDER | CALIFORNIA

“The sheer volume of data that we had converted would have required a significant investment in servers, storage and the IT administrative resources to manage an internally deployed system. The County was able to eliminate the need to worry about the technical management of the solution by outsourcing the entire operation to BMI.”

– Julie Rodewald | County Clerk-Recorder

OVERVIEW

Like many Recorders throughout the United States, San Luis Obispo County made its official records accessible to the public on microfilm. The County’s official records consisted of approximately 3,000,000 images (e.g. patents, deeds, mortgages, reconveyances) stored on 2,600 microfilm rolls.

The cost of maintaining the microfilm archive, cumbersome public searches and a legislative mandate to remove Social Security numbers (SSNs) from public view caused the County to issue a request for proposal (RFP) seeking an official records microfilm conversion solution.

After reviewing several potential solutions, the County selected BMI Imaging’s Digital ReeL due to its conversion accuracy and ability to redact SSNs from public view. Furthermore, the County avoided costly IT infrastructure and management costs by hosting its information with BMI, enabling users from multiple locations to quickly access public records from the Digital ReeL web interface.

CHALLENGES

  • Outdated microfilm reader printers (up to 50% of machines inoperable at any one time)
  • Citizen official record searches limited to on-site retrieval at one location; cumbersome use of microfilm and reader printers
  • California law requirements to protect Social Security Numbers (SSNs)

BMI PRODUCTS & SERVICES

  • 2,600 microfilm rolls of official records digitally converted
  • SSN redaction
  • Hosting Service with all digital images stored and managed by BMI

BENEFITS

  • Legally compliant with all SSNs redacted from public view
  • Avoided upfront capital expenditure with document hosting
  • Online, web access makes retrieval much easier and faster
  • Optimize image quality with adjustable grayscale
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