Archived books easier to access

March 23, 2009

Research at Service New Brunswick offices has become a little easier on the back thanks to the digital archiving of land registry documents.

Computers have replaced the hefty books that used to line the walls of the vault at the Newcastle office, saving time and the effort of lifting.

On a tour of the office Wednesday, Provincial registry coordinator Debby Frost pointed out the room is now used for storing other things, like the pile of office chairs tucked away in a back corner.

"The cost in the savings of the space alone is going to be quite significant, " she said.

Starting in April, the province will begin destroying the physical copies of land registry records from every county in the province.

They will move the registry books from 1784 to 1930 to the provincial archives for public viewing and destroy the rest.

All of the books are archived on microfilm, DVD, external hard drives and government servers to ensure there are backups in case something happens to one version.

Since 2001, anyone who is interested can view scanned copies of the documents through a government database.

To show the quality of the scanned copies, Frost searched for a record and its scrawling handwriting was clear with only the messy handwriting to impede anyone from reading it on the computer screen.

"Those documents have been preserved and preserved very well," she said.

For every document scanned into the system, there are notes kept describing the quality of the original in case the scan looks bad.

It lets the searcher know it was a problem with the physical document and not the electronic copy. With the current system, anyone who pays $15 for half a day of access can look at maps, aerial photos and see tax information on properties, among other things.

"Technology has come so far and so fast."

Up until 1930 there were 106 books in the archive for Northumberland County. Frost said from 1930 to 1975 they had around 120 more and from 1975 to 2001 there were an additional 1,000 new books added.

"The books indicate the amount of movement of property."

Northumberland County covers a large area and people outside the Miramichi who want to access the information like having easier access to it, she said.

"They don't care that the books are gone."

Frost said anyone with an account set up can access the records from any computer anywhere in the world.

"If you have an account you can be in Australia and access the records of Service New Brunswick."

Although she didn't like to see the books go, Frost said it was exciting to see the changes in archiving.

"When I see those images that's what gets me excited."

The significant space savings were visible when Frost opened the door to the room where they store the first archiving efforts at the Newcastle office.

Two boxes of WORM discs the size of a CD in its case rest on a shelf in a room the size of a large closet. About 150 years worth of old books are stored on those discs.

Frost said if anything happens to one storage method there are backups elsewhere, unlike when the Perth Andover office flooded and staff had to dry out the books.

"You never get back what it was."

Any significant historical documents are noted, like Benedict Arnold's will or a book written by a registrar who mentioned in his notes on a registry that a doctor had removed a film from his eye so he could see better.

Frost said they could see fewer scratch marks over mistakes as his vision improved.

"You can see the improvement in the writing."

As for destroying the books, Brent Staeben from Service New Brunswick said the province isn't destroying any documents of historical significance.

"I think that's important for a lot of people to understand."

The Law Society of New Brunswick is the group the uses the documents the most and the province contacted them before making the decision to destroy some of the books, he said.

"This happened with significant consultation from the law society."

Frost said some people worry they are losing part of their history, but all of the books were copies and they weren't destroying the original documents.

"To some people the fact that these documents are being destroyed sounds like a lot of history is going down the tubes."