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News Release: Vista putting records online
Vista putting records online
More cities now digitizing records for efficiency
By: JEFF SCULLIN - Staff Writer for the North County Times
VISTA ---- Sitting in front of an oversized computer monitor, City Clerk Jo Seibert beamed as she quickly scrolled through several years worth of City Council agendas and reports.
This is exactly what she had in mind more than two years ago, when she and her staff began scanning thousands of city records into a new Laserfiche document storage system.
"It's just so much faster to look things up on the computer," she said, noting the many hours she and her staff have spent in the past combing through paper files researching questions from the public and other city departments.
The system allows people to browse through categories of documents, search all documents by key words or narrow searches based on document type, author, department or date range. The clerk's office has set up a public terminal in its office. Access via the city's Web site should be available within a month ---- allowing the public to access city records whenever they want.
The city installed the first scanning station ---- a computer loaded with the specialized database system, oversized monitor and scanner ---- in August of 1999 and a second station this week, Seibert said.
Seibert and her staff worked long hours scanning in boxes of permanent records ---- ones the city is required to keep indefinitely.
To date, 17,700 documents from the clerk's office and finance department have been scanned, Seibert said.
The list of documents scanned so far includes all minutes dating back to 1986, resolutions back to 1996, ordinances back to 1999, agenda reports back to 1988, all current city, Buena Sanitation District and Community Development Commission contracts; expired contracts and agreements back to 1997, operating budgets back to 1997, various financial reports back to 1986, historical studies and reports and a variety of recorded documents ---- most of which are property records.
By year's end, Seibert hopes to have scanned all minutes and resolutions back to 1963, when the city was incorporated. Individual ordinances, which already are available through a digital version of the city code, could be ready by 2003.
Current documents, as they are finalized, are scanned into the system, Seibert said. Eventually, she would like to see every city department equipped with at least one scanning station so all city documents could be archived digitally.
"But that is a pie in the sky," she admitted. "That is very expensive to think that every department would have it."
For the two scanning stations, two operators' licenses and licenses allowing the system to be searched from 50 different work stations cost $30,000.
Debbi Bodewin, a vice president with ECS Imaging, which sold the city its Laserfiche system, said future evolution of the technology should provide more affordable access to the system for more users.
A growing number of cities are switching to digital archiving to provide easier access to records, Bodewin said. Digital archiving allows city employees to more easily perform research from their own offices and eliminates the labor-intensive process of finding, copying and mailing paper records, she said.
Regionally, most cities are experimenting with digital archiving.
Carlsbad officials began scanning permanent documents two years ago, Assistant City Clerk Karen Kundtz said. So far, access has been limited to city employees, but the city plans to install public access terminals in June at city hall and the Faraday Center, she said. Plans also include adding terminals at both city libraries and, eventually, providing Internet access.
Escondido has scanned millions of documents since installing its citywide archiving system three years ago, Deputy City Clerk Bon Zornado said.
Aside from the benefits of digitally storing city records, "the response has been outstanding" from the public, he said.
Eventually, as use of the archive system increases, Seibert said Vista City Hall could be paperless ---- though she admits that may never happen.
"I think it's a dream and it's a long way off," she said. "People want to touch (the paper). They feel safe with it in their hands."
Staff writer Tim Mayer contributed to this report. Contact staff writer Jeff Scullin (760) 631-6622 or jscullin@nctimes.com.
2/2/02
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