Putnam County attorney Arnold Schulberg is looking forward to the day when he will be able to sit in his office and search land records from any courthouse in the state.

He is able to do that on a limited scale today, but not when researching public records in West Virginia.

"Westmoreland County, Pa., has their records (partially) online," he said. "They have them back to the '70s or '80s.

"From my perspective, the way to go would be make them all available online. I dream of the day when I can sit in my office and look at records from courthouses around the state."

But developing completely digital courthouse records is only one of the technological options open to counties in the state. Even larger, more populous counties such as Kanawha haven't reached that point yet, said Brent Pauley, Kanawha County administrator.

Kanawha has some digital records, but converting all public records now in storage into a digital format would be too costly, he said. The county once received a quote for what it would cost to have a company scan all courthouse records now in storage. The price tag would have been about $1 million.

"We couldn't justify spending the public's money on it," Pauley said. "We have enough space to store them."

Few Options

As handy as digital files are, however, the preferred method for long-term archiving public records is one that has been around since the 1800s: microfilm, said Joe Geiger, acting director of archives and history for West Virginia.

"The historical/archival community still considers microfilming the best method of providing a backup copy of the original records," Geiger said in an e-mail interview. "Digital imaging has made public access to records much quicker and more convenient for the public. It is not, however, an acceptable format for the preservation of permanent records. Microfilm is also uniform, while many of the software programs for accessing public records differ from county to county and office to office. In other words, you can use a roll of microfilm on any microfilm reader, but digital files may require specialized software."

Still, the state has been working on a project to digitize certain public records, Geiger said.

"West Virginia Archives and History has been working for a number of years on the West Virginia Vital Research Records project, which involves the digitization of birth, death and marriage records for each county," he said. "These records are in a searchable database format and are accessible on the Archives and History Web site. ... Records for 16 counties have been completed. Statewide death certificates from 1917-57 can also be accessed. The public response to this project has been positive and overwhelming."

County Conundrum

There are two main reasons county officials around the state are looking to technology, and they are related: 1) Courthouses are out of space to store records. 2) Because space is so limited, access to public records often is more difficult.

But those county officials often find themselves in a Catch-22: They need to convert their records to microfilm or digital formats because they are out of space to store paper documents, but they have neither the funds nor the staffing to make that change.

For example, Circuit Clerk Shelia Garrettson and one deputy clerk staff the Calhoun County Circuit Clerk's Office.

"I don't have the money or the capability to scan," she said. "Everything we have is paper."

County commissions in West Virginia set the budgets for circuit clerks and other officials charged with maintaining public records. But budgets are tight, Garrettson said.

"We get our budget from the county (commission)," she said. "It's used to maintain the office and for supplies."

During the past five years, the state has provided some money for records projects through the Records Management and Preservation Board. Some counties have applied for grants to fund microfilming or scanning projects. For the 2008-09 fiscal year, 30 counties received grants from the board.