COUNTY GOVERNMENT WELCOMES TECHNOLOGY

JACKSON -- Optical imaging technology is coming to the administrative offices of Cape Girardeau County.

The new computer system, which is already in use in the recorder's office, will allow offices to scan documents so they will be more quickly accessible and reduce storage space needs.

Recorder of Deeds Janet Robert began looking at the new technology two years ago as a way of upgrading a computer system installed in her office in 1989.

As she began looking into potential companies to provide the new system, other county officials expressed an interest in the system.

"Janet originally started the idea for her office, and then other offices expressed some interest in it," Data Processing Director Ron Andrews said. "We did some research to see what it would do for other offices."

Andrews said in six to 12 months, all of the county's administrative offices will have a computer system dedicated to imaging.

Once the recorder's office is completely operating, Andrews said the collector's office will be added so paid tax bills can be scanned into the system.

"The two main advantages is storage and then the quick access to the information," Andrews said.

Both Robert and Andrews say at this point it is unclear what records will not have to be kept in original copies. But as the technology becomes more accepted storage requirements will diminish.

"Eventually we will be integrating everybody together so people who rely on each other's office for information can access it by computer from their offices," Robert said.

The system in the recorder's office can scan between 35,000 and 40,000 images per platter, and hundreds of thousands of records can be stored in a jukebox, which contains all the platters of information.

If the disk is in use that has the needed information, retrieval time takes three seconds. If the disk is in the jukebox, it can take up to 15 seconds to get the document.

"The advantage for my office is that title companies, surveyors, bankers, lawyers and others who use this information, can have access to it anytime they want to through a computer modem," Robert said.

The system keeps an audit trail of who accesses the information so users can be billed for faxed copies.

As other county offices are put on the system, some of those records can be accessed outside the office, though no firm policies have been established yet.

"There will be a certain amount of information the public would have access to, but the commission will have to make a policy decision on what should be accessible," Andrews said.

Greg Ransom, from Lanier Imaging Systems, said the system has several levels of security to restrict what can be accessed from outside the office, or who will have access to certain information.

Ransom said only a few Missouri counties have this kind of system in use in any county offices, but he predicted eventually counties of all sizes will find that optical imaging is an efficient way to store records.

Robert is putting land records on the system first, but eventually all documents handled by the recorder's office will be added.

Robert also hopes to start adding older records later.