6.1 Million Images Across Nine Phases and Eight Years

MULTI-PHASE RECORDS MODERNIZATION

Pierce County, Washington

More than a century of Pierce County deeds, mortgages, liens, and vital records sat across bound volumes, microfilm, and loose paper — too large a backlog for the Auditor’s Office to convert without a partner built for scale.

THE SITUATION

The Pierce County Auditor’s Office held more than a century of real property, vital, and financial records — Deeds, Mortgages, Liens, Leases, Judgments, Mining Records, Marriage records, and Torrens/Registered Land filings — across 2,148 physical books, 3,008 microfilm rolls, and 22 paper record boxes, much of it predating any electronic system. Converting that volume to a searchable format while preserving chain-of-title accuracy was more than the office could staff internally.

THE APPROACH

iBridge ran the engagement as nine separately scoped and approved phases between 2016 and 2023, applying the same four-stage scan, inspect, index, and enhance workflow to every media type — bound deed books, 1969-era microfilm reels, and boxed paper records alike. Every image was indexed to the county’s six-field metadata specification: Grantor, Grantee, Reference Document Number, Parcel Number, Excise Tax Number, and Legal description.

—  6,145,810 images captured across 157 production days, with only 936 quality observations logged — roughly 0.015% of total volume — each caught during Stage 2/3 inspection rather than found after delivery

—  Where source condition made full correction impossible, iBridge documented the condition rather than delivering an unflagged gap, giving the county an accurate record of what could and could not be recovered

THE RESULT

iBridge delivered 6,145,810 images across 2,148 books, 3,008 microfilm rolls, and 22 paper boxes, each indexed to the county’s six-field metadata specification.

WHY IT MATTERS

Pierce County demonstrates iBridge’s ability to sustain a multi-year, multi-phase program across three distinct legacy media types — books, microfilm, and loose paper — under one consistent quality standard.