Volunteers Helping to Digitize Ohio Court Records

Volunteers Helping to Digitize Ohio Court Records Having a good document management system and information­sharing practices is critical in today’s global environment. Electronic storage helps manage the exponential growth in the volume of records, allowing crucial internal information to be stored without loss or damage.

Historic court records provide great insight into the lives of people throughout society.

Probate court records can reveal specific information about an individual life and provide general evidence about the economy and society of a particular period of time.

Digitization will help preserve and protect the original materials from excessive handling and also make court files available to researchers and other users. In addition to seeking help from professional document conversion companies, courts in many parts of the U.S. are enlisting help from non­profit organizations to digitize their records. The Columbus Dispatch recently reported on Mormons undertaking scanning and indexing work for Washington County Courthouse records dating from 1788, free of charge as part of church missions. When complete, this will undoubtedly prove effective and fast retrieval of court files, reducing search time and providing greater flexibility in the handling of these valuable records.

Process of Digitization

The documents of the Washington County Courthouse are bound in books, packed in boxes, folded into paper packets, or wrapped in paper and tied with string. The court has been trying to get its records preserved for two decades, and moved forward with the support of the Clerk of Courts Brenda Wolfe and county commissioners. The free services offered by the FamilySearch arm of the Church of Latter­day Saints will go a long way in getting the job done.

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The documents of Ohio Supreme Court comprise those from the early 1800s and include: •

Burial documents for Civil War soldiers

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Accounts of coroner inquests

•

Quadrennial­enumeration books that contain the census of township residents

The volunteers will accomplish the task of digitization by scanning the records, digitizing them, and making them available online. Once the documents are in digital format, they can be accessed from anywhere. Case file images can be integrated with an online database that is searchable. Users can eventually browse cases by date, title, circuit, and docket number.

Document Management System at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter­day Saints

The Church of Latter­day Saints is a good partner for this court document management project as it has a great collection of some of the world’s most­extensive genealogical records in digital format. FamilySearch has digitized and indexed more than 2 billion images and records and made them available on the Internet. Family researchers can get the information they need easily from these documents instead of having to visit courthouses and cemeteries. Some records are available in the form of microfilms, which can be converted to digital format via microfilm scanning and indexing.

It’s not just court houses that can benefit from digitizing their records. Every organization that prefers a structured workflow and greater flexibility in processes should move towards such efficient document management systems. Professional companies would have an expert team capable of handling large volume document scanning and indexing tasks. Using the latest technology and techniques, they can also provide services at affordable costs.

www.managedoutsource.com

800­670­2809