Invercargill City Council’s mission to digitise tens of thousands of paper property files will be celebrated this week at the opening of the exedee Invercargill Digitisation Centre. 

The 33,000 Council property files, currently housed in the basement of the Civic Administration Building, are being scanned and digitally recorded by digitisation specialists exedee, whose Invercargill office is being officially opened this week.  

Council Group Manager Customer and Environment Trudie Hurst said the files were an integral part of the story of Invercargill. 

“These are documents that tell the story of thousands of families and businesses that have shaped the way Invercargill has grown,” Hurst said.  

“We feel very strongly that we at Council are the guardians of these records and are taking all steps to make sure they are kept safe so they can continue to be part of the stories we tell.” 

The digitisation was being handled by exedee in order to both safeguard and speed up the process, which began in July.  

“We’re pleased that exedee are handling this in Invercargill and that they have set up an office here in order to complete the work. 

“The local presence means the digitisation project team will be able to ensure teams and customers needing to access information are supported while files are being prepared, scanned and made available online.” 

Digitisation would not only support Council staff but also would make the process of requesting property files faster and easier, she said.  

The digitisation project began in 2015, where it was estimated it would take until 2031 for all the files to be made available online. Council identified the need to deliver this project within a faster timeframe during the Long-term Plan and was now, with the help of exedee, aiming for the project to be completed within the next two years.