PEKIN, Ill. (WMBD) — The Tazewell County Clerk’s Office is enhancing its database with artificial intelligence.
During a press conference on Wednesday, John Ackerman, the Tazewell County clerk, announced that Tazewell County is the first county in Illinois to create a digital directory. The county worked with ArchSearch Digital Archiving Services for this improvement.
The AI tool has the ability to scan handwritten documents. This removes the tasks of having to read documents page by page, allowing people to instead search for certain words.
“Our new search engine not only will be reading the printed text, but will now read handwritten texts as well, which will bring open up treasure troves of historic documentation available to the public to be able to search for you, and find the information they’re looking for,” said John Ackerman, the Tazewell County clerk.
The directory can help search for archived county board minutes and military discharge records. This project cost about $46,832.
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