Conundrum

File storage and retrieval. Are you too good at your job?

Imagine you've been the municipal clerk in a mid-sized city for most of your adult life. You know where everything is because you either put it there or had someone on the staff put it exactly where you wanted it put. The municipal council delights in how you are able to stay on top of things despite the burgeoning growth of your files. They have no plans to make changes.

Then one day, you have to stop everything and drive to a warehouse several miles away to look for a record from 20 years ago. You are the last person on staff who should be going. But you are the only person who is sure to be able to find this obscure document.

What steps can you take to ensure that this will be your last trip of this kind?

The goals:

The municipal clerk in our story is a superstar who needs to put his or her foot down and convince the municipal council that modernizing the filing system is in everyone's best interests.

The proposal should emphasize goals common to virtually all effective file storage and retrieval strategies, such as these five:

1. To maximize the use of onsite space.
   
2. To make it as easy as possible to find and distribute documents (other
   than requiring that one mortal city clerk know everything.)
   
3. To ensure that files are protected from unauthorized access.
   
4. To ensure that documents will not deteriorate or be damaged.
   
5. To be sure you are in compliance with archiving regulations.

Conventional Solution

Try to keep paper files to a minimum.

Sheryle Wyatt, City Clerk in Tumwater, WA, says, "The key is purging. I set aside time in late December and early January to go through as much as I can. When I first started in 1991, I'd find that there were sometimes five and six copies of documents, none of them needed any more.

"Now, I'm mostly looking for documents that are past their retention times. I keep them in boxes by date. We use a company that sends a truck to our offices. They pull the paper out of the archive room and put it through a heavy duty shredder that is on the truck. We do it that way so that we know first hand that everything was destroyed.

"It's a good idea to purge for two reasons. It protects the city from having to produce records that are past their retention periods for lawsuits. And it saves space.

"Purging also gives me an opportunity to make sure that our paper files are as organized as possible, even though we now do virtually all of our searches on our document imaging system."

Many municipalities use mobile filing systems (that generally appear to be from a Star Wars movie) that enable them to put filing cabinets floor-to-ceiling in their file rooms. Others move  many files offsite to less needed and less expensive warehousing as soon as possible.

Microfilm/microfiche: Many municipalities keep all permanent records either on paper or on microfilm or microfiche. The reels of microfilm and/or sheets of microfiche are eventually forwarded for cold storage in the state's archives.

Microfilm and microfiche are reliable, space-saving storage media that have good legal standing. They are almost as difficult to work with as a chaotic warehouse full of paper, however, when you are trying to retrieve a document.

21st Century Solution

Converting your paper, microfilm and microfiche files to electronic files managed by a document imaging system will satisfy four of the five goals for effective file storage and retrieval strategies immediately:

The conversion WILL maximize the usage of onsite space (and all but undoubtedly lead to a reduction in the need for space.) It will enable users to get at files instantly. It will provide security options that are virtually impregnable. And it will eliminate worries that files will become less readable or damaged.

With a document imaging system, you can store millions of scanned images on a single hard drive. When making backups for your files, you can store 12,000 pages of files, the capacity of one standard filing cabinet, on a single CD.

You also eliminate the need for staff to go into and out of file rooms and back and forth to file cabinets because they will now be able to find, work with and distribute files from their desktops.

As Ms. Wyatt of Tumwater, WA, observes, "It's very exciting to have the whole city on the same page, being able to find whatever they need in a fraction of the time it used to take."

A growing number of jurisdictions have already ruled that scanned images meet our fifth listed goal of having your records be in compliance with governmental archiving regulations.

In Ms. Wyatt's State of Washington, for example, scanned images are legal as long as the municipality commits to moving their electronic files to the next generation of document preservation technology if and when that time comes. Most jurisdictions either allow the use of document images as evidence in court or are moving in that direction.

To learn more about this subject visit these links:

Running out of Storage Space?
http://www.Laserfiche.com/basics/benefits.html#4

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