Albany County Hall of Records to contract NYSID for digitization project with Watervliet partnership

Albany County’s Hall of Records presented and won approval to enter two contracts with New York State Industries for the Disabled Inc. to digitize and index archival records for the county and for the city of Watervliet.

Archivist Ricardo Wright Ramos and Craig Carlson, director of the Hall of Records and deputy county clerk, told the Legislature the work targets permanent archival records and is intended to make records searchable and faster to retrieve, reducing wear on physical volumes. Carlson said the project was part of a previously accepted grant and that, because both contracts exceed $100,000, legislative approval was required to sign with the vendor.

Legislators asked whether digitization would reduce the volume of boxed records; staff said this specific project targets permanent archival records and will primarily improve remote access and searchability rather than immediately freeing general storage space. The Hall of Records said it will continue to coordinate with the New York State Archives for legal destruction of non-permanent records where appropriate.

A motion to authorize the contracts was made, seconded and approved by voice vote. The transcript does not include a roll-call tally.

The Hall of Records said the vendor will perform indexing and digitization services for both county holdings and Watervliet municipal records; funding and contract specifics were presented to the Legislature as part of a grant-funded project.