Paper & the information age.

• Author: Kreger, Larry
• Position: Records management

One wit suggested that "life is what happens while you're making other plans." This remark neatly summarizes a dilemma facing contemporary records managers. While we have been occupied with plans for managing a paperless environment, the use of paper has not declined as once was so confidently forecast. Provided here is an overview of this situation and an effort to identify ways in which the electronic and paper-based aspects of our jobs can be reconciled.

We are now in the midst of our revolutionary "paperless offices," which, according to prognosticators in the 1980s, were to be in place by the year 2000. For a generation, the prediction of the demise of paper as a recordkeeping medium was an assumption that went virtually unchallenged.

But the future has a way of not only arriving unannounced but of also refusing to conform to our expectations and timelines for it. So it seems with paper. In an age where change is so rapid that the capacity for storing information on microchips routinely doubles every 18 months, paper, whose essential character has remained essentially unchanged for millennia, not only continues to exist but continues to thrive as well.

For records managers, long accustomed to chanting the mantra of electronic recordkeeping, the unexpected perseverance of paper records raises several questions. Is the paperless office an achievable, or for that matter, desirable goal? If so, what are the best ways to invest finite resources to promote a smooth transition from today's mixed media environment to a paperless one? On the other hand, if a totally paperless system is not worth striving for, how much paper usage is acceptable and in what contexts?

While these issues are being sorted out in the corporate sector, it is apparent that prudent navigation between paper and electronic information storage will remain a necessity for most organizations in the foreseeable future. Responding to that necessity with recommendations that are forward looking and scaleable to organizational needs is a task perfectly suited to records managers. To help make the most of this opportunity, we must examine the present situation more closely and undertake the daunting task of identifying ways to create an environment where digital and paper systems can exist in harmony.

The Paper Tiger

The view of many records managers toward paper, formulated in the past decade, has been that any program relying on paper records to any substantial degree is scarcely worthy of respect. According to this idea, due to computer technology, paper use is shrinking all around us, and continued use of it shows just how technologically backward we are.

It turns out, however, that just the opposite is true: paper usage is rising, not declining, and the use of paper in office work increases even faster with the addition of each new high-tech office machine.

A useful example of the staying power of paper, even in the face of new technology, can be seen in the story of the paper check. In 1966, Americans wrote 20 billion checks, or about 100 per person. Experts at the time warned that this figure was dangerously near the maximum number the banking system could handle. They called for alternatives to paper checks that would not "clog the banking system."

Thirty years later, after the development of the automated teller machine, online banking, direct deposit, and dozens of other electronic innovations in banking, what has happened to the paper check? The answer is that the number of checks written in 1996 reached 250 per person, or 64 billion, a figure that was triple the total in 1966.

According to Robert Samuelson's article "The Endless Paper Chase," the paper check, like so many other types of paper-based information, has defied all expectations and...