LowellDeeds

Friday's chat session featured a lively discussion about the future of record books. With images on a reliable computer system, duplicated on the Internet, the need to have physical record books available to registry users is greatly diminished. Because we stopped making books several years ago, the registry in Lowell has not experienced the pressure to find new shelf space every day. Still, the limited space we do have could be put to better use and, if a new Judicial Center is ever built in Lowell, the registry would be able to fit into a smaller space than we now occupy. Users involved in our chat session expressed a number of concerns: What happens if the computers are down? What about the marginal references that are only written in the record books but are not in the computer? When making copies, putting an open book on a copier gives you two pages for fifty cents while printing from the computer costs you $1 per page. These are all legitimate concerns. For those of you who weren't able to join us on Friday, the blog will answer these and other book-related questions over the next few days.