TABLE OF CONTENTS I never commit to memory anything that can easily be looked up in a book.
Albert Einstein
Chapter Four Learning Objectives
Create documents that are RARE: readable, available, retrievable, and electronic.
Know how to define your metadata to support accurate retrieval of your documents.
Learn about a good tool for improving document retrieval on your PC.
Learn to take personal responsibility to protect your most vital information.
How do you find information that you created two years ago? How do you search your own personal work for information that might be relevant on your current project? Where do you turn to find the critical e-mail that contains promised but undelivered services? What do you use to quickly catalog the 1,000 documents that your law firm has just received electronically during discovery of a nationwide product liability case? Even if you find that long-lost document, will it be in a format that you can view with your current applications? Today's high-end document management systems often store documents on huge optical disks aiming for a 30-year lifespan. Want to bet we'll all be using vastly different word processing applications by then?
Organizing information to solve problems is at the heart of all management information system (MIS)/IT jobs, and knowing ways to leverage tools can help secure your career in any field. When planning your strategy for organizing your archived information, make certain that you create documents that are RARE: readable, available, retrievable, and electronic.
Readable: Documents stored in obsolete...
