DIGITISATION FOR BEREAVMEMENT SERVICES
PLEASE TAKE JUST ONE MOMENT TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS....
- Are your grave, burial, cremation registers, books of remembrance, and plot maps deteriorating from being used everyday? Are they getting difficult to read?
- Do members of your staff have difficulty handling the large registers?
- When members of the public ask for historic information, do you still manually search through the books in order to find records?
- Are you interested in putting your records online for the public to view and perhaps earn revenue from this service?
- Are you looking for a robust, low-cost and simply to use Administration System for your Cemetery or Crematorium?
If you answered “yes” to any of the above then Towns Web archiving can help you.
There are 3 or 4 phases to a Bereavement Services digitisation strategy. You may decide to simply undertake the first phase (digitisation) or you may decide to do everything and put your records online.
PHASE ONE: DIGITISATION
The first phase is to ensure that your plot maps and registers are digitised/scanned. This will enable easier access to the records by members of your staff and will also ensure that you have a duplicate copy of your records should theft occur or some form of dreaded disaster like (fire, flood etc.).
We will provide you with Book Viewing Software – allowing you to flick through the pages of your registers on screen. You can print, fax and email pages directly from the software. You can also copy individual records from the pages and paste them in to external applications such as Microsoft Word or Outlook.
This first phase of digitisation is relatively inexpensive and the benefits far outweigh the initial cost. Furthermore, the costs for digitisation can sometimes be split over financial years – allowing you to perhaps scan books and maps for one or two cemeteries at a time.
TownsWeb Archiving Ltd offer this digitisation service either offsite (at our studios) or onsite at your office.
Click here to read more on Heritage Digitisation.
PHASE TWO: TRANSCRIPTION
The second phase is to transcribe the records from your registers. This will enable speedier access to the records by members of your staff and will also create opportunities to open your records up to the public and perhaps earn revenue (see below). Your transcribed records can also be imported in to an Administration System such as BACAS, EPILOG or CHRONICLE.
TownsWeb Archiving are experts in transcribing old, hand-written records and guarantee an accuracy of at least 95%.
Click here to read more on out Data Capture & Transcription services.
PHASE THREE: ON LINE ACCESS
After digitising your records and transcribing the records you may wish to consider placing your burial and cremation records online for the public to access either “free of charge” or on a “pay per view basis” generating extra revenue for your authority.
TownsWeb Archiving Ltd have helped a number of authorities put their records online. Take a look at the following links:
http://www2.kingston.gov.uk/GraveRecords/
http://www.woottonbassett.gov.uk/cemetery-records/
http://www.stmichaelsdalton.co.uk/ (click on link on right of page)
http://www.spennymoortowncouncil.gov.uk/servicescemeteries.html (click on link at bottom of page)
ADMINISTRATION SYSTEMS
TownsWeb Archiving Ltd have developed Chronicle Lite and ChroniclePro to help Bereavement Services administer your cemetery and cremation records. This relatively low cost and simply to use system is hosted online which means your staff can access it from any location that has access to the internet. Click Here to find out more.
Click here to read more on our Administration Systems.
CASE STUDY
TownsWeb Archiving Ltd have a long established reputation for helping Cemeteries and Crematoriums digitise, transcribe and put their records online. Read our case studies here: Case Study One, Case Study Two, Case Study Three.
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
If you would like a quotation for any works then please complete our quotation form.
Alternatively drop us an email or give us a call: 01536 713834.
