Some documents that date to the creation of the state of Vermont are getting a new, bigger home at the state Records Center in Middlesex. But their move from a tiny basement where they’ve been for decades is about more than storage space.
The state archives have merged with the Public Records Division of the state Department of Buildings and General Service to form the Vermont State Archives and Records Administration.
In addition to managing and preserving more than two centuries of gubernatorial proclamations, original laws, maps and deeds as well as the documents created across state government today, the office is taking Vermont’s record keeping systems into the 21st Century.
Important old documents still need to be preserved, but most state documents are now created on computers, printed, copied, filed as paper documents and in some cases microfilmed.
State Archivist Gregory Sanford just moved his office to Middlesex from Montpelier. Sanford says the state hasn’t kept pace in managing its records in the digital era.