THE PRESS ARTICLES

Bergen County awarded grant to archive public documents - July 6, 2005 [© Bergen News Sun Bulletin (East Edition)]  Counties get funds to provide records - June 30, 2005 [© Courier-Post; www.courierpostonline.com]  Passport to PARIS puts city clerk on paper trail - June 25, 2005 [© Herald News; www.northjersey.com]  State grants $1.4M to upgrade county records and archives - June 17, 2005 [© Clifton Journal] County Records & Archives Upgrades Ahead - June 9, 2005 [© Patriot (Clark) (Devine Media Enterprises; www.new-jersey.ws/] County to preserve records with state grant - June 3, 2005 [© North Brunswick Sentinel (Greater Media Newspapers); http://nbs.gmnews.com/] $1.1 Million Grant to Upgrade County Hall of Records - June 2, 2005 [© Hunterdon County Democrat; www.nj.com/hunterdon] Filing of deeds mortgages can be done online - June 2, 2005 [© Independent (Aberdeen) (Greater Media Newspapers); http://independent.gmnews.com/] State helps counties to save records - June 1, 2005 [© Record; www.bergen.com] $49,900 STATE GRANT Township targets improvements to "antiquated" record-keeping system - May 30, 2005 [© Asbury Park Press; www.app.com] County archives to be preserved electronically - May 28, 2005 [© The Press of Atlantic City; www.pressofatlanticcity.com] Woodbridge Receives Records Assessment Grant from State Archives - May 27, 2005 [© Atom Tabloid & Citizen-Gazette (Middlesex) (Devine Media Enterprises); www.new-jersey.ws/] County archives receive upgrade - May 23, 2005 [© Today's Sunbeam; www.NJ.com] N.J. towns look to future of file storage - May 23, 2005 [© The Press of Atlantic City; www.pressofatlanticcity.com] Grant funds record-keeping upgrade - May 22, 2005 [©  Home News Tribune; www.thnt.com] Grants to improve record archives - May 22, 2005 [© The Times of Trenton; www.NJ.com] Record keeping $1.018M - May 21, 2005 [© Bridgeton News; www.NJ.com] $1.3 million state grant to put records just a mouse-click away - May 21, 2005 [© The Jersey Journal; www.NJ.com] County gets aid to preserve pages of history - May 20, 2005 [©  The Star-Ledger; www.NJ.com] Shore gets $3M grant for recordkeeping - May 20, 2005 [©  Asbury Park Press; www.app.com] County gets $1.1M for records - May 20, 2005 [©  Courier News; www.c-n.com] Morris gets $1.4M to preserve historic records - May 19, 2005 [©  Daily Record; www.dailyrecord.com] New Jersey Launches Public Archives Digitization Program - March 1, 2005 [© Government Technology www.govtech.net]

COUNTY & MUNICIPAL PRESS RELEASES

Atlantic County Camden County Cape May County Gloucester County Ocean County Passaic County Somerset County Union County Woodbridge Township

DARM PRESS RELEASES

DARM Press Release May 19, 2005 (Local Public Records and Archives Upgrades Ahead: State Grants Over $25 Million to New Jersey Counties and Cities)

THE PRESS ARTICLES

Bergen County awarded grant to archive public documents July 6, 2005 Bergen County Executive Dennis McNerney announced that the county received a $1.2 million grant to electronically archive public documents throughout the county, Friday, May 27. “In Bergen County we remain committed to developing and enhancing the management, preservation and storage of records,” said Mr. McNerney. “This grant will enable the county to preserve important government documents while at the same time providing citizens with quick accessibility to public records.” The State Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) Grant supports the development and improvement of public archives and records management in county and municipal governments. The Bergen County PARIS Grant will be used to begin work on ten projects, including: a county-wide Inactive Records Storage project, preservation and improved access to filed maps, trade name index, and naturalization records within the Office of the County Clerk, the restoration of bound books in the Office of the Surrogate, a county-wide scanning solution pilot program, and a grant to hire a County Records Manager. “The PARIS Grant will make public records more accessible, and enhance the security and integrity of recordkeeping in Bergen County,” said Mr. McNerney. “We are excited to have received the grant in its inaugural year, and I believe these projects will greatly benefit our residents.” Bergen County requested funding for ten projects totaling $2,108,357. After review by the State Records Committee and outside panelists, Bergen County was awarded $1,189,277 for the following: County-wide Inactive Records Storage, including records inventory and barcoding: This project will allow for the inventorying, sorting and barcoding of records stored in various county facilities. $121,800 was requested and recommended for award. Preservation and Improved Access to Filed Maps, County Clerk’s Office: $224,970 was requested and recommended for award. Improved Access to Trade Name Index Data, County Clerk’s Office: This project would improve access to trade names filed with the Bergen County Clerk’s Office. $96,400 was requested and $22,000 was recommended for award to cover the new database application. Improved Access for Public to Naturalization Records, County Clerk’s Office: $294,200 was requested and $300,150 was awarded for this project that will create digital images from microfilm of Bergen County Naturalization Records. Restoration of various bound books, County Clerk’s Office: $13,500 was requested and recommended for restoration of select books housed at the Bergen County Clerk’s Office. County-wide Scanning and Records Management Solution (Software): $383,464 was requested and $100,000 was awarded for a thorough electronic imaging needs assessment. County-wide Records Management, Scanning and Imaging System Solution (Hardware): $380,488 was requested and none was awarded. The funding recommended for the project listed above includes funding for the hardware needed to implement a pilot records management scanning and imaging system. Restoration of Bound Books, Surrogate’s Office: This project would fund conservation treatment on several books held by the Bergen County Surrogate’s Office. $451,000 was requested and $14,000 was recommended to cover a conservation plan. © Bergen News Sun Bulletin (East Edition)

Counties get funds to provide records Thursday, June 30, 2005 BY JASON LAUGHLIN Courier-Post Staff Burlington, Camden and Gloucester counties have received a combined $4 million in state grants to help preserve government records and make them more accessible, officials said. "This grant will help us drive down administrative costs to taxpayers by improving the quality, efficiency and security of filing, storing, accessing and preserving Camden County's records and documents," Camden County Freeholder-Director Louis Cappelli Jr. said in a statement issued Wednesday. All 21 counties in the state received money through the state's $25 million Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support grants. The grants, in part, were designed to help counties and some municipalities comply with the 2002 Open Public Records Act, which required government agencies to make records easily and quickly accessible, said Karl Niederer, director of the state Division of Archives and Records Management. Camden County received $1,360,443, Burlington County received $1,254,945 and Gloucester County received $1,446,481. Camden City also received a $49,770 grant for consulting services that will help it assess its needs for records and archives. The grants should be used to make the most commonly requested documents, such as deeds and mortgages, available online, Niederer said. "One of the primary objectives is the preservation of public records, preservation for as long as records are legally required to be kept, but it's also intended to make access to the records more convenient and more efficient," Niederer said. Reach Jason Laughlin at (856) 486-2476 or jlaughlin@courierpostonline.com © Courier-Post; www.courierpostonline.com

Passport to PARIS puts city clerk on paper trail Saturday, June 25, 2005 BY TOM MEAGHER Herald News PATERSON -- Years ago, the city government would store its records - the meeting minutes, contracts, correspondence and other paper documents - in a large room in the basement of City Hall. "The records were all over the place. There was no organization, everybody just took the records downstairs and put them in this room and just left them," said City Clerk Jane Williams-Warren, who began working for the city in the 1960s. Some departments would stick their files in any space they could find in closets, balconies and attics. Now, with the help of a grant from the state, Williams-Warren hopes to be able to put all of the city's paper trail into a digital format, and keep it in one central location. The state Division of Archives and Records Management, a part of the Department of State, recently gave Paterson a $50,000 grant through its Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support program. The money will help Williams-Warren, as the city's custodian of records, to assess the city's needs and create a strategic plan to manage its records. The division gave a similar grant of $48,340 to Clifton. Passaic County received $1.4 million for eight projects to scan and store public records. Williams-Warren, who also serves as the president of the Municipal Clerks Association of New Jersey, said the PARIS program will go a long way toward preserving records that would otherwise be susceptible to age and accidents. The program also signals a renewed emphasis on preserving government documents for the public and for historical purposes. Until about a decade ago, city governments and clerks did not go to great lengths to save these records for later generations, Williams-Warren said. "The library and the museum have always had the means or the technology to make sure that they could preserve certain documents," Williams-Warren said. "My goal as municipal clerk is to bring my office into the 21st century." In the early 1990s, Paterson's Clerk's Office began to "image" the documents for the City Council. That meant that all of the minutes and resolutions and other papers for the governing body were sent to a company several times a year to be scanned into a digital format. They were then indexed on a computer disc and loaded into a database. Today, the public can search through the council's documents back to the early 1970s on a computer workstation in the clerk's office. The state archives division expects that this program will become a yearly grant. Williams-Warren hopes that this is the first step toward digitizing the documents of all the city's departments, a move that would help not only government employees, but inquisitive residents as well. Then the city might have a little bit more space in its basements and attics. Reach Tom Meagher at 973.569.7152 or meagher@northjersey.com. © Herald News; www.northjersey.com

State grants $1.4M to upgrade county records and archives June 17, 2005 TRENTON -- A new state grant program will begin transforming the quality, efficiency and security of local public recordkeeping in Passaic County. On May 19, the New Jersey State Records Committee voted to award $1,443,078 for strategic, countywide improvements in public archives and records management. The grant was authorized through the state’s pioneering Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) program. Featured initiatives funded by PARIS in Passaic County include the imaging of historical records in the County Clerk’s Office, including maps and naturalizations ($435,852), the expansion of the electronic-filing portal in the County Clerk’s Office for improved filing of and access to land documents ($213,280), the implementation of an electronic fingerprint capture and storage system in the County Sheriff’s Office ($104,668), the imaging of criminal identification records in the County Sheriff’s Office ($273,878), and four other projects. Altogether, the state awarded more than $25 million in PARIS grants to New Jersey’s 21 counties and 12 largest municipalities. Passaic County Grants Administrator and PARIS project manager Frances Purciello joined nearly 80 state, county, and local officials at the State Records Center in Ewing for the Committee decision on the grants. Secretary of State Regena L. Thomas, whose department oversees the administration of state and local public records, hailed the grant awards. “County governments function as regional service providers to New Jersey’s citizens,” said Thomas. “An essential, yet unsung service they provide is recordkeeping. The records counties preserve and make available every day directly affect the lives of millions as well as the understanding we have of the rich history of our state and our local communities. PARIS provides counties the resources they need to do the job right.” Authorized by the Legislature in 2003 and launched in 2005, PARIS is by far the largest competitive grant program of its kind in the nation. It represents New Jersey’s first statewide initiative to boost the efficiency, integrity and security of public records systems at the county and municipal level. It will help to preserve more than three centuries of historical government archives, and promote intergovernmental sharing of services and facilities. In 2005, counties were eligible to apply for up to $1.5 million for a wide variety of records projects. The State Division of Archives and Records Management (DARM) administers the program. PARIS will fund major advancements in county and municipal government archives and records programs statewide. According to Karl J. Niederer, DARM Director, “PARIS grants will address the need for building and improving the infrastructure of county and municipal records systems enterprise-wide.” New Jersey’s local governments will use grant funds to boost the efficiency of filing, storing and accessing public records, preserve valuable archives, and drive down the administrative cost to taxpayers. “The advanced technology and tools are available,” Niederer said, “and PARIS makes them affordable to cash-strapped counties and municipalities.” PARIS encourages county and municipal governments to explore opportunities to partner in cooperative archives and records management ventures, including shared services and facilities. In this strategic vision the 21 county governments have a key role, each serving as a regional hub for records management, preservation and storage services, and most municipalities will be able to utilize their county’s records facilities and services for convenient, secure offsite storage, document imaging services, electronic records systems backup, etc. The largest cities and townships may find it advisable to establish their own facilities and services. Statewide, the counties and largest municipalities figure to play strategic roles in transforming local records administration, so the first of PARIS grants will focus in this area. © Clifton Journal

County Records & Archives Upgrades Ahead June 9, 2005 TRENTON -- A new state grant program will begin transforming the quality, efficiency and security of local public recordkeeping in Union County. On May 19, the New Jersey State Records Committee voted to award $1,010,638 for strategic, county-wide improvements in public archives and records management. The grant was authorized through the state’s pioneering Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) program. Featured initiatives funded by PARIS in Union County include a county-wide records management assessment, inventory and pilot imaging system implementation ($450,000), the addition of a Records Manager position ($77,733), commercial records storage fees ($60,000), map restoration and imaging in the County Clerk’s Office ($311,065), and back-file imaging of land records in the County Clerk’s Office ($111,840). Altogether, the state awarded more than $25 million in PARIS grants to New Jersey’s 21 counties and 12 largest municipalities. Union County Freeholder Clerk and PARIS project manager Nicole Tedeschi received notice of the Committee decision on the grant later the dame day. Secretary of State Regena L. Thomas, whose department oversees the administration of state and local public records, hailed the grant awards. “County governments function as regional service providers to New Jersey’s citizens,” said Secretary Thomas. “An essential, yet unsung service they provide is recordkeeping. The records counties preserve and make available every day directly affect the lives of millions as well as the understanding we have of the rich history of our state and our local communities. PARIS provides counties the resources they need to do the job right.” Authorized by the Legislature in 2003 and launched in 2005, PARIS is by far the largest competitive grant program of its kind in the nation. It represents New Jersey’s first statewide initiative to boost the efficiency, integrity and security of public records systems at the county and municipal level. It will help to preserve more than three centuries of historical government archives, and promote inter-governmental sharing of services and facilities. In 2005, counties were eligible to apply for up to $1.5 million for a wide variety of records projects. The State Division of Archives and Records Management (DARM) administers the program. PARIS will fund major advancements in county and municipal government archives and records programs statewide. According to Karl J. Niederer, DARM Director, “PARIS grants will address the need for building and improving the infrastructure of county and municipal records systems enterprise-wide.” New Jersey’s local governments will use grant funds to boost the efficiency of filing, storing and accessing public records, preserve valuable archives, and drive down the administrative cost to taxpayers. “The advanced technology and tools are available,” Niederer said, “and PARIS makes them affordable to cash-strapped counties and municipalities.” PARIS encourages county and municipal governments to explore opportunities to partner in cooperative archives and records management ventures, including shared services and facilities. In this strategic vision the 21 county governments have a key role, each serving as a regional hub for records management, preservation and storage services, and most municipalities will be able to utilize their county’s records facilities and services for convenient, secure offsite storage, document imaging services, electronic records systems backup, etc. The largest cities and townships may find it advisable to establish their own facilities and services. Statewide, the counties and largest municipalities figure to play strategic roles in transforming local records administration, so the first of PARIS grants will focus in this area. “Citizens rely on county and local governments to meet an almost limitless range of information needs from public records,” Thomas commented. “Well kept, easily accessible records are indispensable for government to be efficient, credible and accountable in serving the public, for safeguarding individual property and civil rights, and even for our citizens to discover their families’ histories. And this is only a short list of the many uses made of New Jersey’s local government records.” Funded by document filing and recording fees collected by county clerks, PARIS is a key component of the New Jersey Public Records Preservation Program established by the state legislature in July 2003. For a complete listing of New Jersey’s first PARIS grants to counties and municipalities, visit http://www. njarchives.org/links/paris.html#fy2005award. © Patriot (Clark) (Devine Media Enterprises); www.new-jersey.ws/

County to preserve records with state grant Friday, June 3, 2005 BY MEGHAN ROBERTS Staff Writer Middlesex County will now be able to preserve and protect the paper and electronic records of several county departments due to a $940,899 state grant. The largest portion of the New Jersey State Records Committee Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Grant, $244,020, will be used to scan hundreds of thousands of maps and other documents from the Engineering and Planning departments, according to Margaret E. Pemberton, clerk to the Board of Chosen Freeholders, who oversees the county’s Division of Archives and Records Management. She said that those departments have the greatest need for funding due to the volume of their records, and that they will “outsource the actual imaging” as well as hire a grant-funded staff. A disaster recovery plan will also be implemented, beginning this year with the installation of the equipment necessary to archive e-mails. Pemberton said that archiving e-mails is becoming more important as the use of e-mail increases. The new hardware will be sent to a safe location in the event of a disaster. Pemberton also said that meeting minutes and ordinances, of which no current backups exist in many towns, will be saved on microfilm from now on. Records from the Surrogate’s Office will be transferred to microfilm, some of which have been stored in large bound books since the 1700s. The documents from before 1974 exist only on paper and are mostly handwritten, according to Pemberton, who said this was “something a little bit unique.” “The grant allows us to upgrade — across the board — our equipment and procedures to safeguard our records and improve access to them,” said David B. Crabiel, chair of the County’s Administration and Finance Committee, which oversees the records division. He also said he was grateful for the opportunity to improve archiving without using local tax dollars. About $100,000 of the grant will be used to create a database of County Clerk’s Office records. It will be shared by the County Tax Board and municipal tax assessors and collectors to help reduce duplication of effort and paper usage, both of which will save the municipalities money. This is the first year of the Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Grant Program. It is funded by document filing and recording fees collected by county clerks starting in 2003. About 40 percent of the fees collected, $28 million in total, was awarded throughout New Jersey. Only Woodbridge and Edison were eligible to receive funds in Middlesex County this year due to population requirements. Pemberton said that in the future, that restriction will change, making the grant available to smaller municipalities. “It is a worthwhile program that will help us preserve our past, enhance public access to historic and vital documents and use our limited space more efficiently,” Crabiel said. The municipalities must complete archiving by July 2006. © North Brunswick Sentinel (Greater Media Newspapers); http://nbs.gmnews.com/

$1.1 Million Grant to Upgrade County Hall of Records Thursday, June 2, 2005 pg.B1 The county will receive a $1.1 million Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) grant from the state records committee. According to Robert Thurgarland, director of the county Department of Central Printing and Mail, $750,000 of the grant is earmarked to refurbish the Hall of Records on Main Street in Flemington. The remainder of the grant will be applied as follows: $201,000 to upgrade or replace the land-records imaging system in the County Clerk’s Office; $19,800 to assess the county’s historical documents to see what’s on hand and what’s needed to preserve them. Some documents date to the 1700s; $88,000 to develop a strategic document plan for all of the county’s active records and do a comprehensive records inventory; $49,917 for the county records department to buy a microfiche reader, replace current storage boxes with acid-free long-term storage boxes, and do a trial implementation of records-management software; $5,855 for staff training and industry association memberships for staff involved in information technology and records management. Mr. Thurgarland said 50% of the grant will be available July 1. The remainder will be made available as the projects progress. The awarded amounts were based on the grant application submitted by the county to the state records committee in March. © Hunterdon County Democrat; www.nj.com/hunterdon

Filing of deeds mortgages can be done online June 2, 2005 FREEHOLD -- Monmouth County has taken the lead role in the electronic recording of deeds, mortgages and other real estate documents and is ready to make a push toward expanding the service statewide, County Clerk M. Claire French and the Board of Chosen Freeholders announced last week. E-recording will be a big change for real estate licensees, lawyers, banks and title companies who typically file these records. Instead of mailing real estate documents to county clerks’ offices, they can now be filed electronically over the Internet. In what used to take several days and sometimes weeks during periods of heavy real estate transactions, can now be done in a matter of seconds. The Department of State has awarded Monmouth County a $1,498,565 grant to expand the e-recording project. Other counties received similar, but lesser grant awards so they, too, can participate in the e-recording program. E-recording was developed to help officials keep pace with the hot real estate market that, in the last five years alone, has boosted the number of filed documents here by 200 percent and increased recording fees from $17 million a year to nearly $70 million. The heavy workload had caused a recording backlog in Monmouth County and elsewhere, resulting in extra shifts and overtime costs. When a document is submitted for recording using regular mail, it must be checked manually to ensure that the fee is correct. Then it is recorded, scanned into the system, indexed and verified to make sure all the steps were completed, and then returned to the submitter. “With e-recording, you eliminate most of these steps,” French said in a press release. “It eliminates clerks having to open mailed documents, examine them to make sure they are correct and key the details into the county system.” The portal software was developed using nearly $1 million from the trust fund that is generated by the filing fees to county clerk offices. The money comes from a $2 surcharge on every filing. Every county in New Jersey has been invited to use the software as long as they share in the cost to develop it. So far, Ocean, Cape May and Passaic counties are using it. Four others are close to coming on-line: Burlington, Cumberland, Camden and Essex. The Web portal is hosted, operated and controlled by Monmouth County, so that there is no fee to a private company to file documents. In fact, because the submitters already paid for the software through their $2 surcharges, there is no additional fee for e-recording deeds and mortgages. Another benefit to e-recording documents is that errors from submitters have been reduced from 20 percent to 2 percent, French said, largely because the possibility of human error during manual recording is eliminated. The Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) grant will be used to improve the system’s infrastructure, develop interface with large banks, and enable additional counties to share in the software by funding interlocal agreements. © Independent-Aberdeen (Greater Media Newspapers); http://independent.gmnews.com/

State helps counties to save records Bergen gets $1.2M, Passaic receives $1.4M June 1, 2005 BY SCOTT FALLON Bergen County has received a $1.2 million grant from the state to archive public documents electronically, including maps, trade names and naturalization records. The grant will also be used to hire a county records manager at $56,000 a year, including $19,600 in benefits and $5,500 for professional organization memberships. The county will use the money for 10 projects. They include: - $121,800 to inventory and bar-code inactive records in several county facilities. - $224,970 to preserve maps in the county clerk’s office. - $300,150 to create digital images from microfilm of Bergen County naturalization records. - $27,500 to restore books in the Clerk and Surrogate’s offices. “This grant will enable the county to preserve important government documents while at the same time providing citizens with quick accessibility to public records,” County Executive Dennis McNerney said in a statement. The State Records Committee has given $24.5 million to all 21 counties this year, including $1.4 million to Passaic County. The committee also gave $581,000 to 12 municipalities, including $48,000 to Clifton and $50,000 to Paterson. Bergen County officials had initially requested $2.1 million from the committee. © Record

$49,900 STATE GRANT Township targets improvements to "antiquated" record-keeping system Published in the Asbury Park Press 05/30/05 BY JEAN MIKLE Toms River Bureau    TOMS RIVER -- Dover Township plans to use a $49,900 grant from the New Jersey State Records Committee to hire a consultant who will help the township move its record-keeping efforts into the 21st century. The Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) grants were distributed earlier this month to the state's 21 counties and the 12 largest municipalities. The municipal grants, which could total up to $50,000 each, are intended for towns to hire consultants to help them determine how to improve record-keeping services. Towns with populations of 75,000 or more were eligible to apply for the grants, Township Clerk J. Mark Mutter said. In Ocean County, only Brick and Dover were eligible. Brick received $50,000. The municipal grants were for needs assessments, while the larger county grants were for bigger projects, Mutter said. "Each of these counties had very specific proposals that the committee approved," he said. Mayor Paul C. Brush said much of Dover's record-keeping is antiquated, with boxes of paper files stored in the basement and attic at town hall, as well as other locations. He said a consultant will help the township determine how best to convert paper records to electronic form. "This grant is urgently needed," Brush said. "We are the seventh-largest municipality in the state, and our record-keeping is antiquated." The consultant will determine what the township should do to convert its records into the electronic Global Information System. All township property records, as well as Planning Board, Board of Adjustment and other important documents will be entered into the system, Brush said. This will make records more accessible to residents making inquiries under the state's Open Public Records Act. Brush said township employees must often search several different locations to find records requested under the act, a time-consuming and labor-intensive process. Mutter said Dover's records are located "far and beyond our town hall," including the police and public works departments. He said he looks forward to having the records converted to electronic form and to finding ways to make other, historic documents available to the public. The oldest record in town hall is Dover's "town book," from 1785, three years after British troops burned down most of the Village of Toms River during a Revolutionary War battle. Records from before that time were presumably burned and lost. Mutter, an avid historian, said he was recently reviewing the 1905 town book, which included a notation that the Township Committee had spent $140 to install 25 electric street lights in the downtown area. He said he would like to make sure that such historical documents are made accessible to the public. "Half of this project is records management, and the other half is archival preservation," Mutter said. Jean Mikle: (732) 557-5729 or jmikle@app.com © Asbury Park Press; www.app.com

County archives to be preserved electronically May 28, 2005 BY BRIAN IANIERI Staff Writer, (609) 463-6713 The county Sheriff's Department has 993,000 pages of documents of inmate incarcerations, medical files and piles of paperwork from the county jail. Those documents, along with thousands of others throughout the county, will soon be electronic and backed up on microfilm, said Cape May County Deputy Clerk Rita Fulginiti. The results, Fulginiti said, will significantly save storage space. Cape May County received a $1.5 million state grant to make more records electronic and more accessible. The grant comes from a total of $25 million in Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support, or PARIS, grants in the state in the program's first year. "I think it's going to be a great opportunity for the public to just have easier access to a wider variety of public records than they can now through electronic means," said Karl Niederer, the director of the state's Division of Archives and Records Management. The program hopes to make gaining access to records easier between county and local governments, he said. Part of the county's grant also includes starting a records hall in Dennis Township, far away from the seat of the county government. In case of fire, flood or disaster, copies of records are separated from the originals, Fulginiti said. It's a large project in the state that has archivists excited. Niederer said preserving old parcels of New Jersey history will be the future of the PARIS program. "From an archivist's perspective, one of the most thrilling things is the historical records 200 or more years old, which are in very delicate or deteriorating condition, will be preserved and made accessible," he said. "This is going to make it possible for the county officers to preserve those records for posterity." In the county clerk's records room, stored in a large room with a combination lock vault, records date to the 1600s. In one book, which contains mortgages, is a record of earmarks on cattle that belonged to John Taylor. It is dated Sept. 5, 1693 and includes illustrations of cattle heads. Fulginiti said older records like that, including deeds and surveys, will be looked at for preservation next year. The PARIS grant is funded from fees collected for the filing of land records and documents by county clerks and registers of deeds, according to the New Jersey State Department's description. Last year, the New Jersey Public Records Preservation Account collected $67.5 million. To e-mail Brian Ianieri at The Press: BIanieri@pressofac.com © The Press of Atlantic City; www.pressofatlanticcity.com

Woodbridge Receives Records Assessment Grant from State Archives May 27, 2005 WOODBRIDGE -- Woodbridge Township has received $46,543 for a public records needs assessment and strategic planning process grant, Mayor Frank G. Pelzman has announced. The funding comes from the state’s pioneering Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) program. According to Secretary of State Regena L. Thomas, more than $25 million has been awarded to the state’s 21 counties and 12 largest municipalities for strategic improvements in public archives and records management. “We greatly appreciate this commitment toward helping us continue to upgrade our records management,” says Pelzman. “We have already automated our Building Department records and achieved significant savings in time and expense that are passed on to the taxpayer. The PARIS grant will help us expand that efficiency to other departments, especially those that directly service residents.” According to Karl J. Niederer, State Records Committee Secretary, “PARIS grants will address the need for building and improving the infrastructure of county and municipal records systems statewide.” New Jersey’s local governments will use grant funds to boost the efficiency of filing, storing and accessing public records, preserve valuable archives and drive down the administrative cost to taxpayers. Currently, says Niederer, PARIS grants are available to all counties and cities with populations of 75,000 or more. PARIS funding will eventually be available to all municipalities in New Jersey. Funded by document filing and recording fees collected by county clerks, PARIS is a key component of the New Jersey Public Records Preservation Program established by the state legislature in 2003. Grants are awarded by the State Records Committee, which comprises the State Treasurer, Attorney General, State Auditor, Director of Local Government Services (DCA) and the Director of the Division of Archives and Records Management (DARM). Both programs are administered by DARM, a division of the Department of State. From the municipal perspective, the timing of the grant couldn’t be better, says Michael Esolda, Chief Information Officer of Woodbridge Township and Woodbridge Township School District. “Imaging and archiving technology is changing rapidly and providing new opportunities for municipalities to consolidate their paper and electronic records. This planning phase will let us take a very close look at municipal-wide document management systems and effective records storage policies and procedures.” Secretary of State Thomas, whose department oversees the administration of state and local public records, compares the impact of PARIS to that of New Jersey’s historic first records law, An Act for the Preservation of the Public Records of the Colony of New Jersey, passed in 1760. “The new grant program constitutes an advancement as important today as the construction of the first fireproof vaults to protect New Jersey’s colonial archives nearly 250 years ago,” she says. © Atom Tabloid & Citizen-Gazette (Middlesex) (Devine Media Enterprises); www.new-jersey.ws/

County archives receive upgrade Monday, May 23, 2005 BY TRISH GRABER Staff Writer   SALEM -- Salem County officials announced the receipt of a $1 million grant to fund an electronic archive system to preserve county records and provide the public with easier access to government documents within the next few years. The Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) grant, funded by the NJ Division of Archives and Records Management, is part of $25 million awarded statewide to all 21 counties and 12 individual municipalities. The purpose of the program is to implement a system that would make documents available electronically and preserve government documents over a period of approximately three years. The $1 million grant will be used in the first year to assess the archival needs of the county, hire a four-person Office of Archives and Records Management staff and scan archived records into an electronic format. Eventually, residents could access an extensive amount of county documents online or at a terminal at the records office. Freeholder Director Chuck Sullivan said the grant will enable the county to preserve important government documents while providing the public with quick accessibility. "We are excited to have received this in Salem County during the first round of the grant," he said. First year funds will be used to assess preservation, conservation and records management needs, conduct a facilities study, inventory records, provide staff education and training, and implement a pilot imaging system. Funds are also allocated for an Office of Archives and Records Management staff which include a records manager, archivist, records analyst and clerk typist. According to Debby Turner-Fox, Clerk of the Board/Administrator, grants will be available after the first year to fund additional projects which include outreach programs to municipalities for record management. The grants will be awarded based on need. Fox said the initial grant will help build a foundation for a more productive records management system in the county. "We're really excited about it," she said. "It really came at an opportune time." © Today's Sunbeam; www.NJ.com

N.J. towns look to future of file storage May 23, 2005 BY MIKE JACCARINO Staff Writer (609)978-2010 Last year, a three-man professional shredding team arrived at Little Egg Harbor Township Town Hall with a shredder so big it was transported on a flatbed truck. They came to rid the township of unneeded municipal documents. It’s hard to believe, but most New Jersey towns are still stuck in the Stone Age when it comes to document management. How long has it been since people started storing files on hard disks and other disk drives? Imagine what it would be like if you kept everything – every history paper, every tax record and stock transaction – in paper format. Now go to a town hall. It’s like a blast form the past. So far, only 17 towns have received permission from the New Jersey Division of Records and Archives Management to exclusively store files electronically. Every town must get state permission to do so. In all, 74 government agencies are on the list. In the municipal category, only the Upper Township Clerk’s Office has received permission among southern New Jersey municipal agencies. “It’s a challenge for the entire state,” said Karl Niederer, director of the Division of Records and Archives Management. “Many towns are bursting at the seams with paper.” This is true of two Ocean County towns. Twice in the past five years, Stafford Township has constructed a building for no other reason than to store old documents. The latter one came in 2004 at a cost of $480,000, officials said. Little Egg Harbor Township now uses its old Police Department building for nothing more than file storage. The rest of the town, the Police Department included, moved to a new Town Hall in 2004. And that was after the professional shredder got done. Before digitizing, Freehold Township, Monmouth County, like a bank, stored files in a locked vault located in the basement of Town Hall, according to Terry Patino, the town’s records management coordinator. Holmdel, Monmouth County, which digitized in 2000, used a commercial self-storage facility the size of a two-car garage, its clerk said. Slowly things are changing. Since 2000, when Howell became the first New Jersey municipality to get state permission for e-filing, more and more are joining. Seventeen New Jersey governmental agencies were approved in 2004, according to state officials, and several more are currently having their plans vetted. Last week, the Division of Records and Archives Management doled out $25 million to 21 counties and 12 towns to move the transition along. Only towns with a population of more than 75,000 were eligible this year. That will change next year and Stafford Township Mayor Carl Block is among those who plan to take advantage. “It’s going in that direction,” he said. “Do we pull the trigger this year? No. I got to think, though, that it’s only a year or two away.” Howell Township Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey Filiatreault said Howell was able to transition the Clerk’s Office to electronic storage for less than $50,000. Freehold Township spent $84,000, Patino said. Holmdel spent between $10,000 and $15,000 to get started, clerk Maureen Doloughty said. But the price can become considerably higher for other departments. Howell is currently looking at digitizing storage at its Planning, Engineering, Construction and Water & Sewer departments. Initial estimates, Filiatreault said, are in the $300,000 range. But it seems the transition is inevitable. Patino said Freehold Township’s success has generated much interest from neighboring municipalities. She recently held a seminar on the topic at which every clerk in Monmouth County attended. “They were so interested,” she said. “The clerk from Red Bank wanted me to show her how it works. They’re thinking about purchasing it.” And so it goes…New Jersey towns moving into the 21st Century. To e-mail Mike Jaccarino at the Press: Mjaccarino@pressofac.com © The Press of Atlantic City; www.pressofatlanticcity.com

Grant funds record-keeping upgrade Published in the Home News Tribune 05/22/05 WOODBRIDGE -- The township has received $46,543 for a public-records needs assessment and strategic planning process grant. The funding comes from the state's Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) program. According to Secretary of State Regena L. Thomas, more than $25 million has been awarded to the state's 21 counties and 12 largest municipalities for improvements in public archives and records management. Middlesex County received $940,899.34 for projects in various county offices. "We greatly appreciate this commitment toward helping us continue to upgrade our records management," said Mayor Frank G. Pelzman. "We have already automated our Building Department records and achieved significant savings in time and expense that are passed on to the taxpayer. The PARIS grant will help us expand that efficiency to other departments, especially those that directly service residents." According to Karl J. Niederer, State Records Committee Secretary, "PARIS grants will address the need for building and improving the infrastructure of county and municipal records systems statewide." New Jersey's local governments will use grant funds to boost the efficiency of filing, storing and accessing public records; to preserve valuable archives, and to drive down the administrative cost to taxpayers. © Home News Tribune; www.thnt.com

Grants to improve record archives Sunday, May 22, 2005 Trenton, Hamilton and area counties, were among those receiving grants from the state to improve their government records archives. Under the grants announced recently from the Department of State, Mercer County will receive about $825,000, Burlington County will receive about $1.25 million, Hunterdon County will receive about $1.1 million, Middlesex County will receive about $940,000, Monmouth County will receive about $1.5 million and Somerset County will get about $480,000. Trenton's allocation is about $50,000 and Hamilton's about $46,500. The grants are to improve filing, storing and accessing public records and preserving archives. © The Times of Trenton; www.NJ.com

Record keeping $1.018M Saturday, May 21, 2005 BY MATT DUNN Staff Writer BRIDGETON -- Cumberland County has been awarded $1,018,568 in grants through the state Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) program. According to a breakdown of funding on the New Jersey Archives Web site, a substantial amount of money will be used to make an assessment of the county's record system. "They're going to make recommendations on how we maintain these records," said Matthew Pisarski, senior planner at the Cumberland County Department of Planning and Development. The assessment will be made of all county departments from the department of planning and development to departments at the county courthouse. Funding will be used to hire four staff members to open a county archives and records management office to oversee the management of the county records archive. Funding will also be used for microfilming past land records at the county tax office and networking to an e-filing portal hosted by Monmouth County at the county clerk's office. Cumberland County Chief Financial Officer Marcella D. Shepard spearheaded the PARIS project on the local level. About $25 million in PARIS grants were awarded Thursday to all 21 New Jersey counties and the state's top-14 largest municipalities. © Bridgeton News; www.NJ.com

$1.3 million state grant to put records just a mouse-click away Saturday, May 21, 2005 BY JARRETT RENSHAW Journal-Staff Writer After decades of living with cluttered shelves and overstuffed filing cabinets, Hudson County plans to go digital. Thanks to a $1.3 million state grant, taxpayers will soon be able to access county records, such as land sales, deeds, liens and election results, via the Internet. And county agencies will soon be better able to handle public information requests within the seven days required by statute, said County Clerk Javier Inclán. "It's really a home run for everyone," says Inclán. "Taxpayers will be able to do a lot of business online and employees will be able to do their work more quickly and more efficiently." The county will begin digitizing records stored at the administration building and another facility in Secaucus as early as July 1, and the work should be completed by June 30, 2006, Inclán said. The grant also will provide for a newly created Office of the Records and Archives, which will be under the county clerk's supervision and will handle the upkeep of public records and dispose of them, once they are expired. Inclán says the grant will provide funding for the office during its inception but the county must fund it thereafter. Hudson County received the funding under the first round of the $28 million PARIS statewide grant program. PARIS is aimed at transforming the state's 21 counties into regional depots of information in an effort to relieve municipalities of some recordkeeping responsibilities. The state program is funded by filing and recording fees collected by county clerks and registrars. The grants are to improve filing, storing and accessing public records and preserving archives. © The Jersey Journal; www.NJ.com

County gets aid to preserve pages of history Elizabeth to receive $50,000 of a $25 million fund to safeguard archives Friday, May 20, 2005 BY TOM HESTER Star-Ledger Staff New Jersey's 12 largest cities and 21 counties will share $25 million in state aid to help preserve and secure more than three centuries of public archives and records, state officials said yesterday. State officials said the aid will fund the first statewide effort to bolster the preservation and security of public records ranging from the present back to the founding of counties and towns. "The records counties and towns preserve and make available every day directly affect the lives of millions as well as the understanding we have of the rich history of our state," said Secretary of State Regena Thomas. The aid comes from revenue collected through document filing and recording fees collected by county clerks, according to Karl J. Niederer, state archives director. It is to be used for improving the preservation, storage, filing and public accessibility of records, he said. The program is the largest of its kind in the nation, he noted. Essex County will receive the largest share, $1.46 million. Hunterdon County will get $1.11 million; Middlesex, $940,899; Morris, $1.37 million; Somerset, $479,800; Sussex, $725,665; Union, $1.01 million, and Warren, $859,096. Among the state's largest municipalities, Edison will get $46,658; Elizabeth, $50,000; Newark, $50,000, and Woodbridge, $46,543. Niederer said the funding effort calls for counties to serve as the regional hubs for storage and preservation of municipal records. "Most towns have never given focus and thought on how to handle archive records," he said. Here are examples of how the money will be used: Essex County: $205,382 for microfilming freeholder documents, $154,980 for records preservation and inventory, and $209,466 for microfilming parks and public works records. Hunterdon: $750,000 for renovating the Hall of Records in Flemington, $49,918 for record management supplies and equipment, and $19,800 for inventory and preservation. Middlesex: $244,020 to save documents in the engineering and planning departments, $103,347 to purchase a camera to microfilm bound books, $100,000 to preserve tax board and municipal records, and $24,995 to microfilm important municipal records. Morris: $136,675 for microfilming and records preservation and $162,741 to pay for a records manager and records analyst. Somerset: $215,000 for microfilming records in the county clerk and surrogate offices. Sussex: $468,657 for preserving county clerk records. Union: $311,065 for map restoration, $77,734 to pay for a records manager, and $60,000 for commercial storage of records. Warren: $310,000 to create a records management plan, $94,559 for storage improvements, and $17,082 to preserve freeholder records. © 2005 The Star Ledger © 2005; www.NJ.com All Rights Reserved.