Consider all the costs of using paper as a media throughout the
continuum of the records life cycle, and paper is extremely expensive.

Best regards, Steve
Steven D. Whitaker, CRM
Records Systems Manager; City of Reno

>>> [log in to unmask] 12/08/05 01:19PM >>>
Bruce White wrote:

>The only sure way for going paperless that I am aware of is to remove
all
>copiers, printers, fax machines, etc., any means for individuals to 
print.
>I've heard one or two companies (maybe rumors) attempting this - 
definitely
>a change in culture.

Paper's appeal is that it is inexpensive, portable, easily annotated,
and 
difficult to erase with a fridge magnet <g>. Plus, I experience less 
eyestrain with paper than I do with a computer monitor.

Myself, I think a part of my brain has developed to recognize
"information 
fields" that are 8.5 x 11 inches. This helps me to organize, navigate,
and 
retrieve the content (i.e. "I think I saw that somewhere on the top
left 
corner of a right-hand page") in the process of turning data into 
knowledge. I find it more difficult to achieve the same results with 
spreadsheets and word processing files because I can't see all of the 
information at once in the same way. (And web pages are even harder for
me 
to handle.) This isn't to say that I don't like electronic documents;
it's 
just more work for me to take in the data in the same way as I do for 
paper.

But I grew up with paper; I'll be interested to see how (and whether) 
future generations use it.

Cheers,
Taina Makinen
Vital Records Specialist
Canadian Tire Corporation
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