I spoke with the representative from Cuadra who convinced me that their platform was basically too much power for the size of our archives. I have downloaded a copy of Filemaker Pro. It is a document management system rather than the larger content management systems I had been looking at. On the plus side it is much less expensive and is intuitive and easy to install. On the minus it has a document library template but not an archives template. It does not automatically understand hierarchical systems but you can teach it to relate items to one another. It can be customized to Dublin Core specifications. And it is only one upgrade away from easy desktop web publishing or intranet/server usage. It can also accommodate a user database so it can track who is requesting what.
I also found a scanner that I really like. It can scan letter and legal size documents and has built in OCR and PDF software. I will check out a few more for comparisons sake, but I think this is the one. I also wrote a draft of the survey section of my project.
Preservation Standards. As a City and Non-Profit hybrid organization the company should be following City standards for preservation. But without a central records authority each department handles their records with minimal guidance. I would like to see the company at least accession all of the inactive records into the archive. It would be a positive step that could lead to more in a more cohesive direction.
You will leave a lasting impression on the process used. It's good to see you looked for a scanner that has OCR capabilities in case that is needed. Were you asked to make recommendations for improvement as part of your final report to them? If not, include that in your report for me.
ReplyDeleteI was not asked but with so many opportunities to make upgrades and improvements it would seem incomplete not to write a little about them.
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