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County approves $10 record-archive fee to fund digitization and preservation program
Summary
Brown County commissioners approved a county clerk plan authorizing a $10 record-archive fee to pay for digitization and preservation of historical records, including a multi-year project to scan microfilm and bind books for public access and criminal-record searches.
Brown County commissioners voted to approve a county clerk record-archive plan that authorizes the county clerk to collect a $10 record-archive fee when a non-court document is presented for recording or filing. The fee is intended to fund a multi-year digitization and preservation effort, including scanning microfilm and binding old record books.
Fern, county clerk, told commissioners she prepared the archive plan as required by the 86th Legislature and said the fee increase from $5 to $10 provides revenue for binding and digitization work. "It takes years to do a small batch," Fern said, describing the time and cost of restoring deed-of-trust books and converting microfilm to digital files to support criminal searches.
The clerk described work already underway: digitizing criminal and civil records back to the 1970s and preserving older bound volumes. She said the archive fee helps pay for the county's Tyler records project and other expensive preservation steps; she noted the cost of binding and restoration and the slow pace of processing older volumes. "My employees will go ahead and scan," she said, adding that some microfilm readers are obsolete and the department needs digital access for searches.
Commissioners moved and seconded approval of the archive plan; the motion passed on a voice vote. The commission opened a required public hearing on the plan earlier in the meeting; no members of the public spoke. The clerk said the work will continue over several years and that some original volumes will be boxed or preserved until digitization is complete.
Background provided in the plan, according to the clerk, cites the legislative requirement for an archival plan and explains the purpose of the fee and how records are prioritized for preservation. The clerk said much older material — in some cases books dating to the 1880s — remains to be preserved and that the work has increased public traffic to her office.
Commissioners did not attach additional conditions to the approval; staff and the county clerk will continue the planned digitization and preservation work under the authorized fee.
