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PLATS IN THE PLATO SYSTEM
by Kim Collins Moreno The preservation of a nation's documents serves far more than a few people's interest in history. It is no coincidence that the idea of a formal national archives arose around the same time as the world's first free republics were born, in the late 1700s -- the United States, France, and other nations opened the world's eyes to the necessity of legal rights for all citizens. An archives preserves, on paper then and in several formats today, the written or pictorial legal proof of the past, which no dictator or monarch can deny. Land claims, citizenship papers, court proceedings, patent certificates military-service records -- all of these items are the proof of an individual's service to or claims upon a government. To entrust them to a permanent and safe holding place...is to ensure that person's legal place in society. (1) Three years ago the State Archives and the Administrative Office of the Courts agreed to develop a system for preserving and making accessible all plats filed with the Land Office and the circuit courts of Maryland. This year phase I of installation for the PLATO (PLATs Online) system nears completion. All 24 Maryland jurisdictions are scheduled to have completed phase I of PLATO installation by the end of calendar year 2001. Phase I includes survey, subdivision, and condominium plats recorded for the courts, as well as plats from equity, land records, and judicial records. Plats are cartography relating to land ownership. They represent in graphic and pictorial terms the metes and bounds of properties as described in |
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deeds. As such, plats are crucial to understanding
and documenting the conveyance of land title in Maryland.
Attorneys, realtors, surveyors, title searchers, and
private citizens need to consult plats recorded in the
circuit courts when researching property boundaries and
land conveyances.
Beginning in 1945 copies of subdivision plats recorded with the circuit courts were filed with the Land Office. In 1965, the Hall of Records, now called the State Archives, assumed the functions and responsibilities of the Land Office, including the preservation and storage of the state copies of plats. The Archives began microfilming these documents and providing aperture cards (plats on microfiche) to most jurisdictions in 1993. During this process, the Archives recognized the need for a more comprehensive appraisal and accessibility of all plats. By 1997 the Archives, Administrative Office of the Courts, and circuit court clerks had determined that an online system for plats reference and retrieval could meet this need.
Since most plats are oversized documents -- often as
large as 24"x36" and sometimes even larger -- the
storage and preservation of these important and
heavily-used records have long posed a challenge.
Moreover, the court clerks have felt increased pressure
for more space as the courts experienced expansions in
workload, personnel, technology equipment, and sheer
paperwork produced as part of the daily work of the
judicial system. Likewise, as faster technology has
increased the pace of work in our society, the legal,
surveying, and title professions must conduct their
research in
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