🏛️ Why Local Governments Should Digitize Historical Records Now

Local governments are the keepers of vital public records—but decades of paper and microfilm storage can become a costly burden.

As budget cycles tighten and physical space disappears, digitizing historical records is becoming more than a best practice—it’s a necessity.

Whether you manage city hall, the clerk’s office, zoning, or planning, this post will walk you through the benefits of digital conversion, how it impacts public access, and why now is the right time to act.

🧾 What Kinds of Government Records Can Be Digitized?

Municipal departments often manage:

• Land and zoning records

• Building permits and blueprints

• Council meeting minutes

• Birth, death, and marriage certificates

• Voter registration and tax assessments

• Microfilm reels and fiche cards

These records can stretch back 50, 75, even 100 years, and many are legally required to be retained permanently.

⚠️ The Hidden Costs of Paper Archives

Physical archives pose more than just a space issue. They often:

• 💸 Require off-site storage (monthly rental fees)

• 🧍 Waste staff hours on file retrieval

• 📉 Degrade over time (especially film and paper)

• 🔒 Make it hard to fulfill FOIA/public access requests

And when someone requests a 1954 plat map or an old council ordinance, you don’t want your staff spending hours in a backroom or cold storage unit.

💻 The Digital Solution for Local Governments

With modern scanning and indexing solutions, your agency can:

• Preserve historical documents in high-resolution digital formats

• Enable searchable access through OCR technology

• Reduce liability by securing digital backups

• Quickly respond to public records requests

This means faster service for residents, easier audits, and long-term savings for your municipality.

🛠️ Our Government Document Services Include:

• Large-format scanning (blueprints, engineering plans)

• Microfilm and microfiche conversion

• Secure document transport and chain of custody

• Custom metadata indexing (e.g., parcel ID, date, ordinance #)

• Encrypted digital file delivery or upload to your records system

We’ve worked with town clerks, city engineers, and school boards across the Midwest to safely digitize their archives—on time and on budget.

⏳ Why Act Now?

Many agencies have unused grant funds or carryover budget allocations available before fiscal deadlines hit. Digitizing your archive before the year ends:

• Saves space ahead of office renovations

• Reduces future scanning backlogs

• Improves staff workflows and file access

👋 Ready to Preserve Your Past—and Serve the Future?

We offer free consultations to review your archive size, condition, and storage needs.

📞 Schedule your free government records assessment