Computer‐based vertical files
| Published date | 01 April 1996 |
| Pages | 365-368 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb045492 |
| Date | 01 April 1996 |
| Author | Howard Falk |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Hardware Corner
Computer-based vertical files
Howard Falk
Suppose you had a vertical file
and
wanted to convert it to a computer-based file.
What would
you
need?
In
a computer-based vertical file system, documents
such as pages
of text, book-
lets,
newspaper
clippings
and photographs
are stored in
files
that can be
accessed by
computer.
A
scanner
is used to enter documents into the system. The documents
are
indexed by manual indexing, automatic full-text indexing
or
both,
and they are kept
in computer disk
storage.
Document management software
is used for
indexing
and
document retrieval. Vertical file users can view stored documents on a computer
screen,
copy
page
images
to
a floppy
disk,
or
print the images.
Choosing a scanner
To scan bound pages into a computer,
a flat-bed scanner would be best. The
alternative
is to
remove
the
bindings of
pamphlets and booklets, then feed the
pages through a sheet-fed scanner.
Loose pages and photographs can be
handled by either
type
of scanner.
An input hopper for
the
scanner is a
desirable feature. The advantage is
that a batch of
pages
can be placed in
the hopper, then fed and scanned auto-
matically. Scanning a vertical file will
take a lot of time and batch feeding is
faster than hand feeding one sheet at a
time.
If the materials in the vertical file
are truly valuable, there will be re-
quests for file material in a form suit-
able for publication. That means that
the scanner should be able to provide
images that can be used to produce re-
spectable-looking published results.
Image quality can be described by
the number of dots per inch that make
up the image. For publication-quality
results with photographs, the scanner
should be able to provide an image
resolution of 600 dots per inch or bet-
ter. A flat-bed colour-capable scanner
with this resolution can be purchased
for a street price of about $1000, and a
50 sheet input feeder should cost an
added $500.
By the way, if you have a colour
scanner with an input sheet feeder, and
you also have a colour printer, then
you also have a colour copier. When
sheets containing colour material are
fed into the scanner, these sheets can
be printed out by the colour printer.
Choosing
a
printer
Many publications can now accept
digital images of photographs and
pages.
In the near future we can expect
this capability to become much more
widespread. Most future requests for
publishable vertical file materials will
probably be filled by recording digital
images on computer diskettes. How-
ever, the vertical file computer system
would still need a printer, to allow re-
produced materials from the file to be
carried away by those library users
who do not have computers.
Relatively inexpensive ink-jet col-
our printers are now available, and the
pages they produce can be very pre-
sentable. These printers, able to pro-
duce page images with resolutions of
300 dots per inch or more at relatively
slow
speeds,
are
now available at street
prices of $350 to $500. Faster colour
printers are available at prices starting
at about $5000. Printers able to pro-
duce black-white pages with resolu-
tions of 600 dots per inch at speeds up
to eight pages per minute are readily
available for under $1000.
It does not seem sensible to try to
provide printed output to cater for us-
ers who wish to publish materials from
the vertical file. Such users can be of-
fered the opportunity to carry away
page images stored on their own
floppy disks.
The cost of colour
Although most of the materials in ex-
isting vertical files are black-and-
white, increasing use of colour can
probably be expected in the future. If
the decision is made to collect and re-
produce materials in colour, both the
scanner and printer must be colour-ca-
pable.
Colour scanners and printers are
only marginally more expensive than
those for handling black-and-white
documents. The true cost of colour
comes in storing colour page images.
Colour images take up a great deal
more storage space than similar black-
white images.
Entering the data
The effort required to scan an existing
vertical file into computer-readable
format is one of the most expensive
items involved in setting up an elec-
tronic vertical file. Let's assume that a
vertical file is currently housed in 100
standard legal-width file drawers, and
that each drawer holds 100 folders
The Electronic Library,
Vol.
14,
No.
4, August 1996 365
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