Cass County clerk discusses archiving project

Cass County Clerk Jamie O’Rand recently spoke with the commissioners court about starting an archiving project to preserve vital Cass County historical documents.
“I am here today asking that I continue the preservation of these documents and I have found a company that does the preservation of these historical documents, and they are the most reasonable and very detailed,” O’Rand told commissioners.  
During the Cass County Commissioners Court workshop on Thursday, Feb. 23, O’Rand spoke about what the project entails and said it is her responsibility to take care of the documents. The state requests that county clerks preserve and restore documents to the best of their abilities.
“Preservation is something that every county clerk maintains and does -- back when my mother was clerk in the 80s they went to microfilm,” and the previous county clerk continued preservation efforts, O’Rand said.  
The commissioners requested that the county start with the restoration of handwritten documents first.
O’Rand brought with her one of the smaller books of documents that date to 1886, which is handwritten. 
“I would have brought one of the larger books but they are in worse condition than this one,” she said.
The total cost of restoring the documents, including specialized shelving, is $86,000. An archival fund has been set aside to cover the cost of the restoration and preservation.
The archival funds are acquired using fees from the clerk’s office, and currently the fund sits at around $200,000.
“So many people come to us and request to look at these books for genealogy, historical and heritage reasons but I am very reluctant to allow them to touch them because the documents are so frail,” O’Rand said. “I have toured the facilities of the company that we are looking at using and seen how the whole process works and it is very detailed.
“They put the documents on a type of paper that will be around for the next 300-plus years.”