I have a feeling if they would just ask for volunteers to scan and by means of data entry get those documents online they wouldn't need so much money. It's too bad the documents have sat around "obsolete" for so long.
They would still need money to pay for additional licenses for the software to cover the additional hands on deck. The software that they use is a specialised package and is not an "off the shelf" programme - that is why it is so powerful. Also, each person scanning the documents has to skim the text to select and enter relevant search terms; it is a time-consuming process.