Cost savings to the State from Electronic Archives Services of the Maryland State Archives

Example: http://www. plats.net
 

As of the end of March, we had installed plats.net in all the counties and approximately 800,000 images were on line. The total cost per placing each recorded plat on line was approximately $7.65 per image  (a total of $6,097,918 to date,  since FY 1999).

Intangible savings to both citizen and the state are the ease with which infomation can be located (we are averaging a million requests on plats.net alone each year), and the reduction in time necessary on the part of court staff and patrons in locating and reproducing images from the system.  Nearly 78% of the usage of the system is outside the court house,  while revenue from prints made at the court house has not declined if our study of one jurisdiction is typical.

As to specific savings that can be quantified:

The National Archives of Canada charges $15.95 ($11.72 in American Dollars) per image for the same size plats and that does not include an archival storage and retrieval system such as ours.

In addition, by assuming the storage of the original plats and placing them in a protected archival environment (at a cost included in the $7.65 per image), we have removed a burden of capital equipment and folder costs that, assuming proper cabinets are puchased and the plats are properly protected by folders, of approximately $20 per plat.  Acid neutral folders cost approximately $5 each in quantity and a case designed to hold and service 100 plats costs approximately $1500 in quantity.

Finally, by placing the plats on line the help needed to deliver plats and answer questions at the court house has been,  in one documented case, reduced from three people to 1, freeing up two employees for other demanding court work.

In all, plats.net has produced cost savings to the state of  $34.07 per plat over the period 1999-2004, or as much as $27,256,000, if the plats were properly housed and cared for in their original state.

It should also be pointed out, that because of usage, most large counties have found it necessary to reproduce their whole series of plats to prevent further wear.  One county has done so at least three time in the last 60 years.