Preserving Vital Records

Link to December 15 Wisconsin State Journal article, "Register of deeds project preserves vital records of Dane County".

Excerpt:
The remnant of that contract was on Kristi Chlebowski's desk Thursday in the register of deeds office in the City-County Building. It is one of 4 million documents the staff and a Michigan imaging company are diligently digitizing in an effort to stem the tide and effect of time on a process of deterioration, neglect and lack of proper storage.

The total "back-scanning," the first in a Wisconsin register of deeds office, may take up to a year and will cost at least $400,000. And that's a savings, predicted Chlebowski, who with little notice is dragging her office and its ephemera collection away from the onion skin paper, microfiche and microfilm dating to the 1830s, into the BlackBerry days of the 21st century.

Links
• Dane County Register of Deeds
• The Dane County Historical Society
• Vital records available at the Wisconsin Historical Society