Southwick looks to
preserve archives
By HOPE E. TREMBLAY
Staff writer
SOUTHWICK – Town Clerk Michelle Hill requested last night that the Community Preservation Committee grant her nearly $103,000 for continued preservation of archives.
The money would fund phase two of a four-part process to preserve and digitize official town documents.
Hill told the committee that her original plan for phase two included using two different companies for the work; one would preserve and digitize documents and the other would digitize documents already preserved. Hill said the wrench in that plan is the company she planned to use for digitizing only no longer offers that service.
Hill said the other company, Brown’s River, is going to tackle as much as it can for the original price of just under $103,000.
“They’re going to do everything they can for what they quoted,” said Hill. “They are definitely digitizing everything they touch and will do what they can with everything else.”
Hill said she would receive CDs of the documents to use in her office.
“The public can certainly come and do research in my office, too, they just cannot remove the CDs,” said Hill.
Preserving the archives meets the Community Preservation Act’s historical criteria.
Hill also informed the committee that several years ago she attended an archival seminar and signed up to participate in a study about the town’s preservation practices, how files are stored, if the lighting is affecting the quality of documents, and more. Hill said she just recently was informed the five-month study would be conducted. She said data loggers would be installed in several offices to measure things including natural light. Hill said she is very interested in the findings because of the efforts to preserve and digitize taking place now.
Hope Tremblay can be reached at [email protected]
