SKAMANIA COUNTY CLERK | WASHINGTON
“Digital ReeL’s price was affordable, the turnaround time was within weeks and our records are now much higher in quality. With Digital ReeL’s Cloud Option, we store our digitally converted microfilm at BMI’s data center, accessing our records over the Internet.”
– Sharon Vance | County Clerk
OVERVIEW
As the administrative and financial officer of the Superior Court, a key duty for the Skamania County Clerk is to ensure that the public has unrestrained access to Court records. The County Clerk has a microfilm archive containing court case records (mostly probate) from 1869-1970.
Sharon Vance, County Clerk states, “When we received records requests from this archive, we would drag out the reader printer and film roll and spend time locating the record(s). Poor quality was an issue and in many cases we would have to print the records to read them.”
“Once we viewed how our image quality would be improved with Digital ReeL, we knew it was the right solution,” Vance states. Skamania County Clerk shipped its microfilm archive to BMI’s California facility where exact, digital replicas of each microfilm roll were created. The County Clerk selected Digital ReeL’s Cloud Option, storing the digitally converted records at BMI’s data center. Currently, County Clerk researchers log into the Internet, accessing their virtual microfilm records from the Digital ReeL web interface.
CHALLENGES
- Legacy microfilm archive resulting in slow record retrieval times
- Poor quality microfilm, making it difficult to view records
BMI PRODUCTS & SERVICES
- Microfilm roll archive digitally converted at BMI’s California service bureau
- Digital microfilm archive stored and hosted at BMI’s data center
- Researchers access records over the Internet from the Digital ReeL web interface
BENEFITS
- Hosted solution has enhanced disaster recovery plan with digital records stored in multiple locations
- Full-text search makes it easy for researchers to find case information
- Adjustable grayscale enables previously illegible records to be enhanced and optimized prior to emailing, saving or printing