Is turning paper items into electronic documents the answer to space storage problems at the Plymouth County Courthouse?

That topic was discussed last Tuesday when the Plymouth County Supervisors learned more about the possibility of imaging its paper documents into an electronic form.

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No decisions were made by the supervisors.

Darin Raymond, Plymouth County attorney, said currently records within the court system are being imaged into electronic Portable Document Format (PDF) files.

Raymond said he had spoken with Leesa McNeil, court administrator for the third judicial district, and that she had been in favor of doing the same project in Plymouth County.

"She was happy if we moved toward imaging things because that's the future," Raymond said. "To the extend the county would supply the equipment, (court system) would supply personnel resources to do the scanning."

Raymond said he sees two aspects to scanning paper documents into PDF files.

"The 8 and 1/2 by 11 paper documents are relatively easy to scan and there is a lot of equipment out there that will scan it and do it efficiently," Raymond said. "We're doing it in high capacity right now."

The other aspect is that items like books, maps and oversize objects would be much harder to image and would require special equipment, Raymond said.

But there are companies that can do it, he said.

"Putting in PDF, the key is how we do this in a fashion that you obtain absolute resolution," Raymond said.

He cautioned the supervisors that they also have to look at how the files are formatted when it comes to the future.

"You can't assume PDF will be here forever, but much like microfilm there is so much of it that whatever comes after PDF will have to acknowledge that it exists and be in a format you can move it from one place to the next," Raymond said.

The cost to use an imager and a scanner as well as indexing files will depend on the type used, and it could take years, Raymond said.

"There are solutions out there," he said.

He also pointed out that electronic images would not just be a benefit in taking up less space, but also in preserving documents.

"This stuff's degrading in your courthouse," Raymond said. "Even stuff from the 1890s, you are going to lose them at some point because they are not being kept or stored in ideal places."

In addition to electronic documents, the supervisors also tossed around the idea of using the basement of the Department of Human Services for storage space.

Sharon Nieman, Plymouth County's central point coordinator for human services, who utilizes the DHS office building, said there is space available if old furniture is removed.

She said there are some documents, which she doesn't know what they are, that would have to be sorted, but there are also cubicles, modular units and desks down that could go.