Records Center moving into the 21st century

The Muskingum County Records Center is making moves to get into the 21st century.

At a board meeting Monday the records commission discussed ways of getting paper records scanned into a digital database. Board members agreed on an action plan and a timeline to make the records more accessible.

"This was in the plan before," Muskingum County Commissioner Todd Sands said. "Basically in August the board started convening and talking about digitizing and again becoming more efficient and modernizing the department. We have a timeline now of how things will be completed and so forth. That’s basically the goal of the department at this point."

One thing that the commission discussed at the meeting Monday is the possible purchase of a machine to make the scanning process move more efficiently.

Currently it takes three steps to digitize the records. Commissioner Sands said the commissioners will consider a transfer of funds from special funds at the Clerk of Courts. But he said the machine will help move the records center forward.

"It just cuts out two steps, so it’s definitely the way to go. It puts us into the 21st century," Sands said. "The function is that we have records available upon request, and things can get lost or get destroyed in floods or fires, or things like that, but if they’re digitized, they’re much more secure."

Board members agreed on another motion today to hold monthly board meetings next year as they move forward in digitizing the records.