Document management is on everyone's mind lately. From the convention floor to the municipal office, people are talking about how to address the growing need for quick and accurate search and retrieval of municipal records. Along with this need come uncertainties and questions: What exactly are our document management needs? How can the computer help us? What document management system is best for us? What can the computer do that I can't do? The purpose of this article is to present a brief overview of some of the electronic options available for municipal document management.

Even though document management has only recently become a popular topic of conversation, it is something that many municipal officials already have some experience with. In 1962, the late A. Ross Kitt II, founded General Code Publishers - one of the first companies created to specifically address the document management needs of the local government. Mr. Kitt was an attorney serving as Supervisor for the Town of Ogden when he became frustrated by the difficulty of locating various pieces of local legislation. He took on the task of compiling an accurate and up-to-date compilation of all the legislation the Town had enacted. Officials in neighboring communities were soon asking him to help them do the same thing for their municipalities, and a business was born! Since that time, the Code has become the legislative storage and retrieval medium for most municipalities. By researching, editing, paginating and printing a comprehensive Code, obsolete legislation can be eliminated, state statutory requirements can be met, and municipal legislation can be easily found, read, and referenced. The Code gives municipalities the ability to maintain legislative documents without misplacing or losing important items.

The Code is a great tool for managing living documents like municipal legislation, but municipal officials also have to handle the inactive, historical and archival documents that are not legislation. In the not-so-distant past, finding municipal records often meant searching through boxes in the basement, dealing with water damage, and trying not to let the dust and mildew aggravate your allergies. Finding documents was a time-consuming and frustrating process, but the inconvenience was accepted because no one had come up with a better system. Eventually, however, technology began to change the way things were done.

One simple invention that forever changed document management was the filing cabinet. The filing cabinet brought organization to our cluttered lives and cluttered desks. Documents went into folders and folders had labels. Color-coding made everything easy to find. Filing cabinets kept things off the floor, making the occasional burst water pipe less of a threat to vital records. But filing cabinets are far from perfect. Inevitably, there are too many files for the cabinet, and instead of reorganizing, we just stack them on top, hoping that someone else will take the time to buy new cabinets and move the files. Having only the top two drawers open can bring the whole cabinet down on top of you, making the filing cabinet an occasional threat to health and safety! Worst of all, there was always someone who forgot that P came after O. This is why no one will ever see the 1976 Purchase Orders again.

This is the level of technology where most municipalities are today. Filing cabinets are in countless municipal vaults, holding vital records and legislation. Anything that doesn't fit in the filing cabinets can be found in storerooms full of shelving units and packed with boxes. Despite the inconvenience, the shelving unit and the filing cabinet remain the organizational choice of many local governments. However, as new document management programs become easier to use and increasingly more affordable, the old ways are gradually being phased out.

Computers have revolutionized many areas of our lives, making things easier, simpler and more efficient than most people ever thought possible. The computer runs the word processing program that is replacing the typewriter. The computer runs the e-mail that is replacing the letter. The computer operates the scanner, Internet and search and retrieval program that is replacing the filing cabinet. The last five years or so have seen great advances in the computer technology available for use in document management. Computer hardware, such as high-volume scanners and network servers, has become affordable for even the smallest municipality. Combined with how easy it is to use most search and retrieval software, computerized document management has become the choice of many clerks, managers, administrators and councils.

The same General Code Publishers Code that was invented more than 40 years ago is now available in a computerized version. A computerized version of your Code can be installed onto a network or onto individual computers. Running a computerized version of the Code ensures that everyone is referencing the same up-to-date and accurate legislation. Some computerized versions of your Code can also be uploaded to the Internet, giving anyone in the world 24 hour a day access to your Code. Many municipalities have found that by having their Code available on the Internet, they are better equipped to attract new business development to their community. Contractors and potential homeowners from both within and outside the community can access the building, zoning and subdivision Codes whenever they need information. Municipalities who use the Internet to share information about their area are positioning themselves as progressive and innovative leaders for economic and population growth.

Legislative documents aren't the only municipal records that are benefiting from the growing use of computers. Computers are also being used today for indexing of Minutes, document imaging, and accessing vital records. A few years ago, General Code developed a customized software program that gives municipal officials almost instantaneous access to the complete text of Minutes and resolutions (see GCP MinuteManager ). Whatever form original Minutes are in, they can be easily incorporated into the program. The program can also be updated to include new Minutes as they are recorded. Having the Minutes available electronically in an easily searchable format eliminates the hours of wasted time that were spent looking through the old books page by page.

If you want to have all of your documents, not just your Minutes, available in a searchable electronic format, then document imaging may be the best answer for you. Programs like Laserfiche® take scanned images of all your documents and make them searchable. Laserfiche uses a process called OCR, which stands for Optical Character Recognition, to turn the scanned picture of your document into a searchable text format. Users can print copies of the original document or cut-and-paste the text into a word processing program. Laserfiche can also upload your documents to the Internet, translate them to e-mail, or burn them to CDs for easy distribution. Amazingly, one CD will hold as many documents as a four-drawer file cabinet. Imagine carrying fully searchable copies of every municipal document ever created by your municipality in your briefcase! Laserfiche is cost effective because the needs of the municipality determine how the system is structured. From the stand-alone system to the complete municipal network, Laserfiche is designed to work with you.

Hopefully this article has given you some insight into the changing world of document management. Like all technology, the thing that ultimately separates one system from another is the level of customer service that accompanies it. Without someone you trust available to answer your questions and help you along, the investment you make in a good document management system will be wasted. Whether you choose the file cabinet or the file server, protect your investment by working with a company you can trust.

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