For the first time ever, the DeKalb County Clerk’s office has the ability to preserve records of current and future county commission meetings at no extra cost to the county. As these minutes are scanned, saved and stored in a web-based format they immediately become available for public viewing and printing.

County Clerk James L. (Jimmy) Poss recently began the process of converting the original paper documents to digital with the help of a software provider.

More than 100 years of county commission minutes are stored in the archives of the clerk’s office and up until now they have remained in their original paper forms, bound in books.

Although the books will not be replaced, Poss said putting the minutes contained in those books into a web-based format will better preserve and make them more readily available to the public through home computers or mobile devices. Poss said plans are to also install a public access computer in the clerk’s office where people can use to look up minutes from county commission meetings.

“Scanning and storing these minutes by computer makes the searchability quicker, more accessible and certainly much more secure. We are protecting these records from fire, water and or smoke damage, physical and or aging. Simultaneously, we are backing each document up in our computers as well as an off-site center (Business Information Systems or BIS),” said Poss.

Although the process of scanning the paper documents is lengthy and time consuming, Poss said the     software provider is making it easier and at no extra charge to the county.

“Business Information system (BIS), our software provider has furnished and installed a program enabling our office to scan, save and store these records by computer. Our office currently has multiple books dating back to 1884. Our staff has the ability to scan several of the books which are binder style with removable pages and paper size making it easy for our equipment to scan,” he said.

Other books not as easy to scan can be done by the software provider for a fee

“The remaining books are much larger with pages that are bound together. Those books require additional steps and equipment our office doesn’t have. However; Business Information System (BIS) can and will process these books for a fee per book. We will also continue producing and storing minute books as we scan all future minutes,” Poss continued.

Once scanned, anyone wanting do a web-based research of the minutes for a particular issue can do a keyword search on their computer and every meeting in which that issue was discussed will appear on the screen.

“If someone comes into our office asking about a road say “Sunset Drive” for example, they can enter that road name into the search window on the computer and the software will search all of the documents that have been scanned, listing each of the documents the keyword search appears in. All of the results will then be displayed, allowing you to access every document that matches your search criteria,” said Poss.

You can also do research from your home computer simply by visiting www.tncountyclerk.com. and selecting DeKalb County. Many of the records are already scanned in and online for public viewing.

https://secure.tncountyclerk.com/minutesSearch/index.php

“The searchable program was added to tncountyclerk.com on October 29, 2018. We have a number of these records currently searchable. Once you’re on the website, near the bottom of the page you will see Minutes Search. You are able to key in a single word, road name, specific month, etc. to view these records which are available,” said Poss.

With the technology so readily available, Poss said it only makes sense to preserve these records in an electronic format and to scan new ones into the system going forward.