There have been 20,500 new documents processed so far
this year.
PARIS – New scanning equipment at the Oxford County Registry of Deeds’ eastern office is creating a paperless database that stores deed records on computer.
Register of Deeds Jane Rich said Monday that her office changed over to the new scanning system Oct. 7, and “after the end of 2004 we do not plan to print books anymore.”
By next spring, she said her office will have all the registry’s documents scanned back to 1970. The database will be available on a Web site so lawyers, title searchers and the general public can, for a fee, access the information on the Web.
The cost is expected to stay the same as paper copies: $11 for the first page, and $2 for each additional page.
Because low interest rates in the past few years have led to an increase in real estate sales, Rich and her three employees have been busy keeping track of all the transactions. There have been 20,500 new documents processed so far this year through her office in the Oxford County Superior Courthouse. Considerably fewer documents are processed in the county’s Registry of Deeds’ western office in Fryeburg.
Rich estimated her office will generate $380,000 in income for the county by the end of the year.
The deeds office was redesigned last year to make room for more shelf space for books. But it looks like space won’t be a problem for much longer, she said.
“People don’t seem to mind. They know it’s the wave of the future,” she said of the scanning. Once a user finds the deed they are looking for, they simply print it and pay for it.
Storing the files electronically will also make it unnecessary to transfer deed information on to microfilm for permanent storage, Rich said.
The authority to begin scanning deed information was granted by the Legislature in its last session, she said. So far, Penobscot, Cumberland and Somerset counties have made the change; Sagadahoc County, like Oxford County, is still in the process of changing over.
The deed books will still be maintained until the end of 2004, to allow the public to get used to the change, she said.
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