County recorder sends back-up documents to State Archives

Every computer expert will tell you: ‘It’s a good idea to back-up your data.’

Pinal County Recorder Laura Dean-Lytle has taken that adage one step further by making a second back up of documents that go through her office.

“We have our records stored off site in Florence,” Dean-Lytle said. “But I began thinking that we should have a back-up set at a more distant location. The State Archives seemed to be the most logical place to store them.”

The back-up records are stored on microfilm, the legal media for records storage. The advantage of having the records stored on a microfilm card is the space savings from larger, bulkier record books, while the logic of microfilm being the only legal archival media is that it can be read with a flashlight and a magnifying glass, should the need ever be that necessary.

Located behind the desk of the County Recorder are large books titled ‘deeds.’ The records that are contained within the books date back 50 to 100 years.

Motioning toward the books behind her desk, Dean-Lytle said they have been preserved for a longer life span by having the acid extracted from the pages. The preservation method is costly, which is why it makes sense for records to be microfilmed.

“The majority of our record books have been microfilmed,” the County Recorder stated. “But every once in a while, we have people who like to see the documents from the books themselves.”

Once a month, a county employee from the Recorder’s Office will make the trip to the State Archives in Phoenix to deliver microfilmed documents for safekeeping. The cost to the taxpayers for this arrangement is nothing.

“I appreciate the State Archives agreeing to store our records,” Dean-Lytle said. They understand the importance of having a back up. But it is a back-up system I hope to never have to use.”

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