RICE COUNTY DISTRICT COURT, KANSAS

“Digital ReeL is incredibly intuitive and easy to use. When we first deployed it, we had not had the chance to show anyone how it worked. Yet, researchers started coming in, opening the application on the public computers and were able to immediately start running searches to locate documents.”

– Jane Hrabik | Clerk of the District Court

OVERVIEW

The Twentieth Judicial District Court Office serves Barton, Ellsworth, Rice, Russell, and Stafford counties in Kansas.

Jane Hrabik, Clerk of the District Court, states, “We had a goal of digitizing and standardizing records management processes at our office. Converting a portion of our records that were still archived on physical microfilm was an important step towards achieving this initiative.”

When Rice County learned about Digital ReeL, the application showed promise but it was important to understand the organization supporting the software and research other similar customer experiences using Digital ReeL. After learning more about the application and discussing the solution with BMI customers, Hrabik and team determined it was the right solution for the District Court.

CHALLENGES

  • No in-house IT team (nearest teammate 30 miles away)
  • Manual record management processes offered no standardization and relied on existing staff (not transferrable to future District Court managers)

BMI PRODUCTS & SERVICES

  • 300 microfilm rolls digitized at BMI’s California document and microfilm conversion facility
  • Document data sets included public and confidential records
  • Digital ReeL microfilm conversion solution
  • CJIS-compliant hosted solution

BENEFITS

  • Solution requires no IT support from the District Court
  • Digital ReeL app offers easy to use search and retrieval options for public, without staff help
  • Adjustable grayscale makes it easy to optimize what once were illegible records on physical microfilm