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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, March 20, 2003
Contact:
Betty Gould, Thurston County Clerk, 360-786-5549
Clerks Office
Undertakes Huge Archiving Project
OLYMPIA – Thousands of archives, some dated before the State of
Washington came into existence, are being converted to digital records at the
Thurston County Clerk’s Office. It’s
a huge undertaking according to Clerk Betty Gould, but one that must be done.
“You can imagine the kinds of files that we are required to keep here
because this is the seat of state government as well as the seat of Thurston
County government. Our files date
back to 1847 when they were kept in bound books in gracious handwriting.
We are obliged, even honored, to maintain these records, but more than
150 years worth of paper files takes up an awful lot of room.
That’s why we are converting them to computer disc.”
The project is a monumental undertaking. A look at the statistics demonstrates how big; there are an
estimated 15-million pages, they are kept in 7-thousand archive boxes and
approximately 1.5-million pages will be converted each month until the project
is complete. That means 30 to 60
boxes of records will move in and out of the Clerk’s office each day.
Gould says converting the
records to computer files will free up some much needed space.
“We will be able to drastically reduce the amount of space in the
Clerk’s Office that is now devoted to storage.
In addition, about fifty percent of the space at the County Records
Center is now filled with our files. That
area will soon be available for other uses once our archives are cleared
out.”
Gould says preserving the most historic files is a top priority in the
process. “We will transfer the
actual paper copies of all records from 1847 to 1930 to the state archives.
But many paper files dated after 1930 will be shredded once they are
preserved digitally and that’s where I need the help of the public.
We’ve already asked former judges and county
commissioners if they know of important files that should be preserved in
their original form and have saved those that they suggested.
But we are also asking local attorneys and former officers of the court
if they have ideas about whole files that should be saved.
They can just call me with their suggestions.”
Some files that are frequently requested, such as adoption papers and
probate documents will be maintained.
The HarborPort Company of Kirkland started the process of converting
paper files to digital files in mid-February under a $450,000 contract.
The project should be completed sometime next fall.
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