Glossary
Plain-language definitions for the terms used across Lincoln AI DMS and public-records workflows.
DMS
Document Management System. The software infrastructure that stores, organizes, retrieves, and governs documents. In county offices, a DMS handles recorded instruments, retention schedules, access controls, and public search — not just file storage.
OCR / ICR
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) converts scanned images of text into machine-readable characters. Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR) extends this to handwritten or stylized text. Lincoln AI uses both to make recorded documents fully word-searchable.
Metadata extraction
The automatic identification and capture of key fields from a document — such as grantor, grantee, instrument number, recording date, and legal description. Extraction turns unstructured images into structured data.
Metadata expansion
The enrichment of extracted metadata with normalized values, cross-references, and additional tags. Expansion links related fields, standardizes names, and prepares data for search and downstream systems.
Validation
The quality-assurance step where extracted fields are checked against confidence thresholds. High-confidence fields are accepted automatically; low-confidence fields are flagged for human review. Validation ensures accuracy without requiring staff to inspect every document.
Processing vs. indexing
Processing refers to the OCR/ICR and metadata pipeline that makes documents searchable and structured. Indexing, in the recorder-office context, refers to the grantor-grantee index and other searchable party-name indexes that citizens and title searchers use to locate records. Processing creates the data; indexing organizes it for public retrieval.
Day-forward processing
Running OCR/ICR and metadata extraction on new documents as they are recorded, rather than on historical records. Day-forward is typically the first phase of a Lincoln AI deployment.
Backfile conversion
Processing existing paper or scanned archives so older records become searchable and structured alongside new ones. Backfile work is usually scoped separately from day-forward processing.
Exception-based review
A workflow in which staff only review documents or fields the system flags as low-confidence, instead of inspecting every record. This is the foundation of safe, scalable automation.
Confidence score
A 0–100 measure of how certain the system is about an extracted field. Scores above a configured threshold are accepted automatically; lower scores route to human review.
Grantor-grantee index
The recorder's index of parties transferring (grantor) and receiving (grantee) interest in property. It is the standard way citizens, attorneys, and title searchers locate recorded documents by party name.
Instrument number
A unique identifier assigned to each recorded document, used as the primary reference for retrieval and cross-indexing.
Book and page
The legacy reference — volume (book) and page — used to locate a recorded document in bound record books. Still cited in many jurisdictions alongside instrument numbers.
Legal description
The formal text describing a parcel's boundaries, using conventions such as metes and bounds, lot and block, or section/township/range. Often a key extracted field on deeds and mortgages.
Field schema
The defined set of metadata fields captured for each document type — for example, the fields extracted from a deed differ from those extracted from a lien or a mortgage.
Retention schedule
The rules that govern how long each document type is kept and when it may be disposed of. A DMS enforces retention so records meet statutory requirements.
Role-based access control (RBAC)
Permissions assigned by role — such as clerk, supervisor, or public user — rather than configured individually per user. RBAC keeps access consistent and auditable.
Tenant isolation
Architectural separation that keeps each county or agency's data inaccessible to others on the same system. Critical for multi-jurisdiction deployments.
Title plant
A privately maintained database of property records, typically organized geographically, that title companies use to perform title searches efficiently.
Title search
The process of reviewing recorded documents to confirm ownership of a property and identify liens, easements, or other encumbrances affecting it.
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