Records bureau switches to online system
The New Hampshire Vital Records Bureau expects to provide nearly instant access to information from over 300 years' worth of records with a new automated system. Access to records charting births, deaths, marriages and divorces, will be available from the first 23 sites later this month. Previously, requests were processed in paper format. When the new client-server system developed by ManTech Advanced Systems is completed, approved documents can be searched for and printed from more than 400 sites including town clerk offices, funeral and nursing homes, hospitals, doctors' offices, and the state medical examiner's office. Ultimately, the project, known as Vital Record Vision 2000, will link 6.5 million records with another 40,000 records added annually.
"Tracking vital records data is a critical, time-consuming and often thankless task," said Karen Grady, the registrar of vital records. "Anyone who needs this information wants it to be accurate and easy to get. This new system, which will take us well into the next century, provides universal access quickly, easily and much more cost-effectively than before."
The core database runs on an existing Oracle 7.3 with a new Hewlett Packard HP-UX imaging server and HP SureStore 330 jukebox. An Eastman Software OpenImage Server for Unix and OpenImage Cabinet with batch scan utilities are also being used from Windows 3.11 workstations. A RAID Level 5 storage system ensures data integrity and provides fully redundant back-up. The application uses a 32-bit architecture