But then we were looking at a new program, new processes and new documents for this Housing Affordability Grant program. Applicants send in a signed application with a copy of their federal return, which we must retain. When they are entered in the database designed for this process, a “cover sheet” is printed and placed on top. Since the cover sheet is the same format for all the documents, it was an easy Quick Fields fit. But we didn’t want to have to try to OCR the name and other data into the Laserfiche document template, because it’s already available in the program’s database and user entry or even OCR entry would potentially lead to errors and repairing. 100% accuracy could be achieved only by using the database data. So, we have Quick Fields OCR the parcel number and go get the name and other information from the database based on the parcel number match! So simple and yet, without the right tool, a complex programmatic issue!

More to come very soon about a Virginia Statewide User Group Seminar Dec 1st in Chesterfield, VA. Stay tuned ….

Training will cover electronic records, both scanned documents as well as other electronically stored records (such as databases, Word files, Excel, etc). Retention and destruction requirements and using the retention schedules will all be included as well.

One of our members, Corey Smith, from the Library of Virginia, has provided some information that provides excellent background and will help everyone attending come prepared with specific, pertinent questions.

Corey says:

“As your primary interest is with electronic records that are scanned and in a database, I would like to mention that records follow the same retention period regardless of format. Caveats come into play as retention periods differ and some records may not be the best candidate for a particular format. For example, a record with a 50 yr retention would not be recommended to kept on a CD. The life expectancy of a CD is only 20 yrs. Because of this, anything with a permanent retention or with a long retention would not be recommended for a CD format.

“On our LVA Website, you can access our updated Electronic Records Guidelines that can hopefully provide some additional information for your benefit.

“To give you an idea of what’s considered personal identifying information, under section “C” of 18.2-186.3 in the Code of Virginia, it defines certain types of personal identifying information.”

If you’re in the Central Virginia area, we hope to see you at our User Group meeting!

Our Agenda:

• Welcome/introductions
• Group business & info
• Lightning Talks (Mini-Success Stories) – each person has up to 3 minutes to talk about something cool they learned or did with Laserfiche recently
• Library of Virginia presentation, followed by questions from attendees

For directions to the meeting, visit the Albemarle Website. Of course refreshments will be provided!