Latest News Articles from Pearl Scan Solutions
Archiving the deceased. Finally digitising burial records
Date: 03/11/2009
Councils all over the country have offices which contain burial and cemetery records for each person buried in public cemeteries. These records have been gathering up massively over time and some cemetery offices are now pushed for space because of the huge backlog of stored records. Pearl Scan Solutions are a document scanning company looking to help councils digitise their records and finally organise all of their archives while reclaiming that overtaken office space.
When it comes to locating one burial record it is rarely found instantly even with the best filing systems. Most cemetery offices will still hold records in the dated microfilm, microfiche or paper document format which can prove time consuming to manage. As a result many Councils have already completed or are in the process of having all of these records scanned electronically archived on to computer to use as a records database.
Council archives in Manchester and Cheshire have recently put this process in place by having their backlogged burial records scanned and electronically archived and they now simply enter any burial information on to their computers as they come in, this keeps the paper files and old microfilm/fiche out of the loop which they can now have shredded. That also frees up the office space that these records previously dominated.
If somebody asks for a record once this process is put in place, the staff would simply search on their computer for a surname, date or reference number and have the record pop up on their screens instantly! Quite a convenience for those who often deal with heavily archived filing.
Pearl Scan offer scanning of a range of media such as microfiche, microfilm, documents of any size, bound registers, newspapers, publications and any form of hard copy documentation. Having already worked with numerous councils and libraries to arrange this type of work. Pearl Scan’s official ISO 9001:2000 accreditation means that document scanning services are audited externally.
Normally a procedure such as this would involve a collection of the records from the client’s location no matter what condition they are in. They are then take to the high-tech bureau and scanned in using the latest edition scanners. These scanned files are checked through quality control and indexed in whatever format is required e.g. by name, address, date of birth etc. Once they are all compiled into searchable electronic files the CD’s are returned with the records on along with free file retrieval software for ease of searching. If necessary the originals can also be destroyed to free up the space you need if required.
Councils are being warned through data protection not to fall too far behind with record keeping, This is now becoming more a matter of ‘when’ will they be digitised rather than ‘if’ they will be digitised.
Return to Latest News
