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Select Board to form ad hoc committee to study digitizing town records
Summary
After a presentation on storage and search options for municipal records, the Select Board agreed the town manager will appoint an ad hoc committee to evaluate digitization approaches (Laserfiche, PubDocs, Catalog) and recommend a cost‑effective, secure solution.
Town staff and an outside presenter briefed the Select Board on the town’s records‑digitization needs and options for secure, searchable storage.
Presenters said Dalton’s current records are scattered—stormwater documentation and planning materials are stored on a single regional planning computer and on department web pages—and that moving to a cloud or hosted solution would improve access and disaster recovery. The presentation compared a best‑in‑class option (Laserfiche), a lower‑cost municipal option integrated with the town’s e‑code provider (PubDocs) and a metadata‑driven cataloging option (Catalog). Costs range from high‑end annual licensing to low‑cost subscriptions; one example cited an annual PubDocs-related cost of roughly $1,300 tied to an existing e‑code subscription.
Board members agreed more hands‑on research was needed and supported forming an ad hoc committee whose membership the town manager will appoint. The board requested that Heather coordinate with planning, conservation and stormwater stakeholders to prioritize sensitive records and to ensure disaster backup and access controls are central considerations.
No final procurement decision was made; the committee will study options, consult with peer communities for lessons learned and return recommendations to the Select Board.
