About Public Records Handbook
You're planning a backfile project, evaluating AI-assisted OCR vendors, or trying to understand what exception review actually costs in staff hours. This handbook cuts through vendor claims to explain what these projects involve in practice — how to scope them, what modern tooling can and can't do, where human review still matters, and how to move validated data into production systems.
Written for county recorders, clerks, records managers, auditors, and the CFOs and commissioners who fund these projects.
What this handbook covers
| Topic | Who it's for |
|---|---|
| Backfile conversion | Recorders and CFOs scoping large digitization projects |
| AI-assisted document indexing | Operations staff evaluating OCR and extraction tools |
| Reindexing, QC & data imports | Clerks inheriting legacy index inconsistencies |
Editorial standards
| Standard | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| No invented data | No statistics, certifications, or case studies we can't verify |
| No gated content | All guides are freely accessible — no email, no download |
| No perfection claims | AI indexing and OCR have real failure modes — we explain them |
| No legal advice | Content is educational; consult your state records management agency for compliance |