Through the digitization of about 1.3 million files dating back to the 1600s, city leaders in Salem, MA learned that one issue has remained top-of-mind for residents throughout the centuries: parking.

In the early 1800s, local residents would complain about a lack of space for tying up horses or wagons. By the 1920s, residents complained about not having enough places to park their Model T's. And in 2020, people were still complaining about traffic and parking, Salem CIO Matt Killen said.

Salem leaders are at the midway point of an approximately six-year digitization process for the city's centuries-old documents, and will have cost the city about $690,000 by the end of its next fiscal year in June 2021.

Such digitization efforts have taken on a heightened sense of urgency in local government due to the pandemic and a shift to largely remote operations, and Salem leaders have said the benefits of digitizing are well-worth the cost — even during a year when most city budgets are strapped.

Salem's digitization process began in 2017 as city officials prepared to move a number of departments — human resources, engineering, health, planning and others — to a new building. The "stars aligned," according to Killen, because it didn't make sense to move countless boxes, papers and other physical files.

Killen pitched Mayor Kim Driscoll on implementing a document management solution for improved efficiencies and public transparency, and Driscoll was immediately on board, he said.

Read the full article about digitization efforts during the pandemic by Cailin Crowe at Smart Cities Dive.