During the Year 2000, the RAIMS staff concentrated their efforts on one of the major issues in county records management - the ever-increasing storage needs for paper copies. Compression of records through microfilming and electronic scanning continued as quickly as possible. The staff had to cope with some major issues in this respect: 1) Electronic scanning was done in addition to normal duties 2) One microfilmer has been on workers' compensation 3) There is still significant resistance among departments to both microfilming and electronic access. Despite these barriers, the RAIMS staff continued to compress records through microfilming DSS client files, county permanent financial files, Surrogate Court records, voting records, FLCC student files and various other permanent documents that would impact the functioning of county government in case of disaster. RAIMS also freed up funds to permit the creation of CD-ROMs and permanent backup COM microfiche for financial year-end records of the Treasurer's Office.
The pressure on storage space, however, continued
and actually picked up in 2000. A total of 1,317 cubic feet of
records were taken in, but only 531 cubic feet were destroyed
based on the CO-2 retention schedule. The increase of almost 800
cubic feet of records, the largest net increase since 1992, has
strained the storage capacity of the Records and Archives Center
to its very limit.
In a way, the increase in record storage is a compliment to the efficient RAIMS staff. With an average of 4 minutes per retrieval time, many departments see little reason to clutter their areas with semi-inactive or inactive records. During 2000, the Department of RAIMS was responsible for 36,031 retrievals and 1,251 interfilings. (Interfilings are files or documents that need to be placed into existing boxes, but do not include old files returned after a retrieval.
RAIMS completed one grant-funded program that permitted the production of the Proceedings of the Board of Supervisors in electronic format for more efficient research and information gathering by various county departments. RAIMS was also in the midst of another grant-funded project - the organization, indexing and protection of nineteenth century court records. As always, the RAIMS staff is committed to make it easier for county staff and researchers to access records. Both projects result in significant time savings. The staff has also continued to index record series to improve record searches. Staff and volunteers continued to work on indexing Surrogate Court records, naturalizations, the 1789-1845 index to deeds, court records, and the 1875 New York State census record for Ontario County. These projects have made life easier for researchers from all fifty states. The RAIMS web site at http://raims.com/ has topped the million mark for hits at 1,223,126 for the year 2000. For a county-based website, the popularity of the RAIMS web presence is unsurpassed. The RAIMS site is not only a much-appreciated research tool, but also an excellent public relations method. RAIMS hosts about 800 on-site researchers per year. Many of them come to Ontario County because of the RAIMS web site - and to visit the rodent control officer. With the help of an educational web committee that includes the RMO, Assistant RMO, County Historian and the Victor Town Historian, RAIMS has also made a start in utilizing county records for educational purposes. "Slavery and Freedom" is designed for teachers, students and the general public. The educational site http://raims.com/education/ also provides some rudimentary lessons on county government as well as the development of Ontario County. As webmaster, the RMO combines http://raims.com, http://raims1 (internal server) and the county web site http://www.co.ontario.ny.us/ to provide information for internal and external customers.
Research requests through letters has dropped significantly from the all-time high in 1998. This is a trend which started in 1999, probably because of the web presence. Saved staff time is being allocated for important archival work. It means that the county archival records will be in an environmentally save storage and that we will have better search and retrieval control. We will also have a better analysis of conditions of records - especially those which had been stored in the Court House basement.
Looking to the Future:
Development of a hybrid electronic scanning/COM microfilm system to compress permanent records, store them safely, and have convenient user access.
Expansion of the Records and Archives storage facility.
Aggressive reduction/elimination of duplicate records.
Work with departments to train new clerical staff in records management
Continue to improve access to archival records.