Dear Colleagues,
Good question, followed by several excellent responses.
A hypothetical Question: Do we need to Quality Assure (QA) every document
scanned in a scanning process? And the answer is - It depends!
It depends on what? Quality Assurance (QA) of the process but not
necessarily the individual document!
As an internal or external scanning provider, do we carry out the Standards
for the Quality Assurance (QA) of our scanners as defined in Recommended
Practice for Quality Control of Image Scanners Document Number: ANSI/AIIM
MS44-1988(Revised in 1993)?
If we follow this standard to the word then the QA required for the checking
of each and every document scanned may be minimised to 50% of documents or
10% or 5% or 1% or event less.
Why?
Because the standard provides us with a degree of a blanket QA process for
all document scanned.
The USA Standard ANSI/AIIM MS44-1988 titled "Recommended Practice for
Quality Control of Image Scanners" states the following along with many
other important criteria in nine sections. 4.2 Why do I need Quality
Control?
In the typical digital image management system, all incoming documents are
scanned, indexing information is entered, and the original paper documents
are eventually destroyed. In some systems the scanned image of the document
may never be examined until it is needed. Strict quality control is required
to assure that the images stored are of acceptable quality and are locatable
by way of the index.
If a scanner is not operating properly, a large number of useless images may
be stored on the system. When the problem is discovered and corrected, the
original documents will have to be scanned again. Procedures should be
established so that any problems are discovered while the original documents
are still available.
The quality control procedures described in this document allow the user to
make sure that the system is performing today as well as it was when
originally adjusted by the manufacturer. Used on a regular basis, these
procedures can assure the user that the scanner will produce digital images
of sufficient quality for their intended use.
Enough: I cannot, for ethical and copyright reasons provide you with the
whole of the Standard. You can buy that online @
http://webstore.ansi.org/ansidocstore/find.asp for $44.00 USD.
I will however refer you to several scanning articles I have written which
are available at the Digital Microfilm Equipment (DME) website Articles
webpage for zero $'s. First is the article, Quality Control of Document
Imaging or Scanning - Sep 2001 located @
http://www.microfilm.net.au/articles.shtml?quality_control ; the second,
Scanned Images .TIFF or .PDF and what will happen when I go to court - June
2002 @ http://www.microfilm.net.au/articles.shtml?scanning_for_legal_needs ;
and the third, Scanning for legal needs - September 2002 @
http://www.microfilm.net.au/articles.shtml?scanning_for_legal_needs .
An Australian case study: In the early 1990's a large engineering
organisation in Australia needed to digitize all of it hundreds of thousands
of engineering drawings dating back to the turn of the century to a .tif
file format due to a reorganisation of its operations and the need to have
the data available online. The only full holding of the drawings were held
in 35 mm microfilm aperture cards.
Solution: To scan the total holding of drawings held in 35 mm format to
digital images in a .tif file format and to make the data available online
24/7.
Major Issues: Due to the variable nature of hand drawn engineering drawings
(and you think that the scanning and QA involved with general hand written
documentation is a challenge) a 100% Quality Assurance (QA) process was
implemented.
Process: Initially five hundred (500) aperture cards were scanned (without
operator involvement) overnight. In the morning five (5) QA personnel loaded
the resultant .tif file images onto their fully featured CAD stations and
viewed each drawing for clarity and ease of use by the end user. Over a
period of time it was found that the number of rejected images requiring
rescanning was less that half of one 1% or less than five (5) drawings per
500 scanned each night.
Result: The team of five QA personnel were disbanded and the five fully
featured CAD stations were reallocated to other duties. The scanning group
then advised its online clients that if they found a drawing image that was
less then the quality they required then the scanning group would rescan the
offending 35 mm aperture card on a one off (with that ability to try various
settings of DPI, contrast and brightness etc) basis and to provide the
highest possible digital image from what was usually a poor quality original
paper copy rather than a fault of the 35 mm aperture card filming or
scanning process.
It depends: In this particular situation they applied the exception rule and
as all aperture cards were retained in that format and with a number of
copies available for rescanning on an as needed basis this solution was a
desirable, acceptable and a highly cost saving process. Five personnel were
allocated other related duties and five high cost CAD workstations were made
available for other drafting tasks. A WIN - WIN situation for all.
Could this QA environment as detailed above be replicated in a general A and
B size general document scanning environment?
Well. IT DEPENDS!
It is a matter of horses for courses.
Please advise if you have any queries or require additional information.
Regards, Laurie
Mr Daniel Lawrance [Laurie] Varendorff, ARMA
Copies of the PowerPoint Presentation of the 26th November 2004 - Why the
Americans are beating us at Records Management! - are available for a fee @
http://www.congresswest.com.au/records/index.html
Specialist Technical Writer on Records and Information Management (RIM) and
related subjects, available for hire.
Published Articles available @ http://www.microfilm.net.au/articles.shtml
A Records Management Professional, and proud of the fact!
Consultant/Trainer/Tutor/Presenter: Records and Information Management
Imaging and Micrographic Specialist: 30 years experience
TVC -The Varendorff Consultancy also representing: Digital Microfilm
Equipment - DME
You may care to visit our web site @ Digital Microfilm Equipment (DME) - For
all things Micrographic
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