Case Study: Quitman County preserves historic records and speeds document access with BIS, Inc. and Grooper

Preserving the Integrity of History

Quitman County, Mississippi, a small and economically challenged county government, needed to preserve irreplaceable historical records dating back to 1877 while staying within budget. Its aging land, court, marriage, and other public records were deteriorating, with torn pages, fading ink, missing pages, and risks from fire and flooding. The county had tried microfilm, but found it cumbersome and not a long-term solution, leading Quitman County to seek help from BIS, Inc. and its Grooper platform.

BIS, Inc. partnered with Quitman County to digitize and restore the county’s most critical pre-1990 sewn books over a five-year phased project, beginning with land records. BIS carefully disassembled the books, repaired damaged pages and covers, imaged and enhanced the documents with Grooper, and then reassembled the books in like-new condition. The result was a digital courthouse with PDF records approved for long-term preservation, disaster recovery copies stored off-site, and public document retrieval times reduced to less than five minutes, with records accessible within 24 hours after a disaster.

Quitman County

Butch Scipper

Chancery Clerk