WISE — The Wise County Clerk of Courts office has been awarded two grants by the Virginia Circuit Court Records Preservation grants program, operated by the Library of Virginia, to preserve records and restore old record books.
The two grants, totaling $13,125, will enable the Wise County office to create a digital and online clerk’s order book and to preserve more of the county’s deed books from the early 20th century.
The Wise County Clerk of Courts office has been engaged in digitizing old records, and restoring old books, in an ongoing process over the past decade that has so far resulted in the rebinding of nearly 120 of the county’s late 19th- and early 20th-century real estate transaction books.
A $5,000 grant award will enable the Wise County office to create the first state court digital clerk’s order book that includes the oaths of office of various elected and appointed officials of the county, city of Norton and town governments, including election officials and appointed boards.
The digital book will span retroactively to 1996.
The $8,125 grant award will enable the Wise County office to rebind 10 deed books dating back nearly a century.
Expected to be completed within the next six months, the land record books span 157 years of property transactions including surface real estate, coal, natural gas and other mineral rights.
“We are particularly pleased that the Virginia Circuit Court Records Preservation grant program made an award for the first digital Clerk’s Order Book in Virginia,” said Wise County Clerk of Courts J. Jack Kennedy. “It is a precedent award for other clerks of courts throughout the state to follow in advancing records management into the digital era.”
Over the past 15 years the Wise County office has successfully made grant applications for nearly $200,000 to preserve and protect paper records while simultaneously preserving the historic records in a digital version for future generations.