Adams County asks vendor for proposal to digitize historical commissioners' books

Adams County commissioners heard a presentation from a vendor about scanning historic commissioners' books and authorized staff to solicit a written proposal that includes a searchable‑text option.

The county meeting included a detailed demonstration by Josh Dawson, identified as a representative of US Imaging, of on‑site book scanning, image enhancement and an AI‑assisted transcription option that the company said can read handwritten pages at high accuracy. Dawson told the commissioners, "we can scan them as is" and described scanning in color, producing searchable black‑and‑white images for day‑to‑day use, and retaining color images for long‑term backup.

Why it matters: commissioners said the county lacks a reliable, searchable index for older commissioner records and that some historical information — road right‑of‑way entries and other land references — is hard to locate in the paper books. Making the books digitally searchable would make records easier for staff and surveyors to find and help protect original paper volumes from loss or fire.

During the presentation, Dawson described technical details and options. He said US Imaging's process can preserve sewn‑binding books without cutting pages, remove and rebind mechanically bound volumes, and apply image‑enhancement that reduces page curvature and improves legibility. On AI transcription he said the company uses a "private tenant" model that keeps data within its servers rather than sending pages to public large‑language models; accuracy thresholds were described as green (above 99%), yellow (95–98%) and red (below 95%), with human review for yellow and red results.

Commissioners and staff questioned how scanned output would integrate with the county's existing document management software. Dawson said US Imaging will format exports to meet whatever software the county uses and recommended a pilot: "we would do a pilot where we would take, usually a book, and we'll fully process it from start to finish right at the beginning," and then verify the output meets requirements. He estimated per‑book costs "somewhere between $500 a book and a thousand dollars" depending on binding, page type and size, and said a typical on‑site project might run about six months from start to finish.

Staff noted the county participates in TIPS (a governmental purchasing cooperative) and that US Imaging is listed, which could simplify procurement. Commissioners asked the vendor to include the searchable option as a line item in the proposal. No formal vote to purchase services was taken; commissioners directed staff to obtain a written proposal and cost estimate for the books on site plus any related volumes identified in storage.

The vendor said crews would perform scanning on site and provide a hard‑drive backup stored off‑site as part of the project; if the county later identified issues, the vendor said it would repair them under a standing guarantee. Commissioners asked staff to inventory which volumes the county wants included and to coordinate access and procurement steps.

Proposed next steps included: staff to identify the specific cabinets and books for the vendor to price; the vendor to return a written proposal including a searchable‑text option and estimated on‑site time; and procurement staff to advise whether to use the county's TIPS membership for contracting.

The vendors' presentation and commissioners' discussion on the matter are expected to return as a procurement action after staff review of the proposal.