Clerk receives grant

By Greg Bird
birdman@tmcvoice.com

County Clerk Eric Haynes was recently awarded a $15,000 grant from the Kentucky Department of Libraries and Archives to continue his efforts to preserve official documents his office is charged with collecting.
Haynes said the grant is the fourth of its kind his office has received during his term as he continues to try to digitize the old deeds, marriage certificates and other official documents, preserving and protecting the official record of McCreary County.
“We are trying to get everything in the system,” Haynes said. “The old books are great for historical purposes, but they are fragile and difficult to navigate sometimes.”
“We want to scan every document in to the computer system so anyone can access what information they are looking for with just a few keystrokes. Doing so also allows us to preserve the original copies in a better way.”
Haynes began the process soon after taking office in 2009 by obtaining his first grant and digitally scanning all new records in to the system. Through the years he has received additional grants, which pays for the scanning and storage, at no cost to his office.
“We continue to get more and more records scanned,” he said. “We are through the 1960’s, and the plan is to eventually get every document we have in to the system and preserved forever.”