Pacific Northwest Tribe Preserves the Past While Empowering the Future
Strategic Initiative
A Pacific Northwest Tribe manages numerous types of crucial, vulnerable historical documents, some dating back over 150 years, in addition to ongoing Tribal operation content. Outdated processes and infrastructure left them swimming in a sea of paper, putting culturally and operationally significant documents at risk of loss to fires, mold, and degradation. Employees manually searched through the stacks to find information, grinding productivity to a halt.
Solution Plan
To better serve their members and empower their employees, the Nation employed the help of ImageSource and the ILINX platform to digitize their documents, including specific assistance with access, usability, and organization. A Historical Records Conversion Center was established and equipped with the necessary scanners to accommodate various media types, enabling the Tribe to continuously add content and maintain their best practices.
Investment Return
With the equipment in place, the Historical Records Conversion Center employed 10 Tribal Members. ImageSource provided onsite training and supported the conversion effort. The Tribe has converted history and operations, including irreplaceable language resources, treaty documents, landmark court case documentation, and recordings of interviews with Elders to a digital archive, enabling member access. This preserved the documents and provided unprecedented access to culturally significant materials.