Becky Ivey

Johnson County Clerk

Preservation, Restoration and Records Archive

Five Year Plan FY 2017 – FY 2021

Plan Summary

The purpose of this document is to define the restoration and preservation plans of the County Clerk’s Office for the next fiscal year. The scope of work is ongoing in order to preserve documents and conduct restoration activities when necessary. The ultimate goal of these efforts is to digitize permanent documents and make them readily available and useable to the public online, thus protecting the original documents. The plan is designed to comply specifically with the requirements and is the intent of Texas Local Government Code Section 118.011 (f) and 118.025, HB 1513-83(R). This document addresses the restoration and preservation needs of the County Clerk’s records archive.

Responsibility

The responsibility for implementing the preservation and restoration of records maintained by the County Clerk’s Office will be the County Clerk and the delegated employees selected to assist the County Clerk. Final decision regarding the funding and expenditures of the plan shall be made by the County Clerk with Commissioners’ Court approval.

Budget and Expenditures

Records preservation and restoration efforts are funded by revenue generated by the County Clerk’s Archival Fee. The plan may be adopted by the Johnson County Commissioners Court as approved by the Amendments to Texas Loc. Govt. Code 118.001 and Section 118.025 – Amendment 51.305 (b) as set by HB 1513 of the 83rd (R) Legislature. The fee amount is approved by the Johnson County Commissioners’ Court, and itemized as part of Johnson County’s annual budget process.

The funds generated from the collection of this fee are expended only for preservation and restoration, document indexing and records storage. It is our intent to designate all funding carried over from a previous fiscal year for expenditures to the above.

Overview

An elaborate inventory of all records in possession of the County Clerk’s Office has been conducted. The inventory identified the current record type (book, paper and film) with the desired digitized format and retention period. Records with a short retention period will not be preserved. They will be destroyed in accordance with guidelines set by the Texas State Library and Archive Commission.

The projects’ focus is to unbind, clean, humidify, de-acidify, mend and encapsulate records in an archival polyester pocket, and rebind them in Disaster Safe County Binders which meet or exceed the NFPA Operating Practices ~6.12.2. All pages will be digitally scanned and captured via Kodak Digital Science Scanners and Kodak High-Volume Capture Software and then formatted in a multi-page or single page Group 4 TIFF files as needed. All images are to be saved in duplicate to Kodak Preservation Gold DVD-Rs as needed.

It is intended for all preservation and restoration work to be done in the most effective techniques and practical location. Johnson County will have the right to make periodic visits to the location where the records are being preserved and restored. Unsatisfactory conditions or methods will result in all work being suspended until procedures and techniques satisfactory to the County Clerk are implemented and adhered to. The cost for the books and pages to be restored and preserved will adhere to all procurement statutes and/ or bidding processes.

Preservation Project 2015-2016

The 2015-2016 preservation project included 18 Volumes of Commissioners’ Court Minutes and Index Books: Index to Commissioners- Volume 1-3; Court Minutes- Volume A, B transcribed C, D; Original E and Transcribed E; Volume 1-9; Probate Case No. 3-2517 and Probate Minutes-C-G.

Birth and Death-Birth and Death Record A; Register of Death 1885-1917; Register of Births 1888-1933 and 1917-1928

NOTE: The 2015 Project completed the restoration and preservation of all hand written Commissioners’ Court records. The County Clerk has received delivery of this entire project (April 5, 2016).

Preservation Project 2016-2017

The 2016-2020 preservation projects included Probate Case No. 2518-6520. This will complete the preservation of Historical Probate Case Records through 1950.

Preservation Project 2017-2021

The 2016-2020 preservation project includes: Death Record 1-6, A-2, A-3, A-5, A-6; Deed Record A, A-W, 23-82,84-385; Direct Index to Deeds 1, 3-30; Reverse Index to Deeds 1-7, A-Z, Marriage Record 1, 3-30 and Marks & Brands Volume #1 from 1854 to approx. 1941.