Colleges of all sizes continue push to go paperless
Colleges have many necessities related to document scanning and going paperless, from daily communications to archiving critical documents. And because they are likely taking on so many different needs across multiple departments in many different buildings, the value of remote capture capabilities in particular may create unique opportunities for a college or university to meet their uncommon needs.
For instance, thew New Jersey Institute of Technology, located in Newark, launched a program designed to preserve the architectural history of its home city as it underwent a major facelift nearly a decade ago, according to Brick City Live. The Digital Archive of Newark Architecture (DANA) requires the scanning of hundreds of old documents, from photos, maps, books, government documents, blueprints, and so on.
DANA has been crucial not only for NJIT, but also scholars from other institutions, both in the U.S. and elsewhere. All the information is being put online on a continual basis, and the program has received continual funding from a number of sources to continue broadening its scope and capabilities.
"DANA is a continually evolving project," Maya Gervits, director of the Littman Library at NJIT, told the site. "We are constantly looking for new ways to improve its functionality, add more content and expand our vision."
Meanwhile, halfway across the country in Estherville, Iowa, the U.S. Department of Energy recently recognized Iowa Lakes Community College for its efforts to cut down on paper use and other waste, according to Dickinson County News. Not only does the school work to promote as much of a paperless environment as possible, it also prints all physical documents on both sides of a sheet of paper by default, further reducing both its costs and waste.
The more every type of school from colleges to elementary schools can do to reduce paper use, the more efficient they are likely to be on a number of fronts. That includes not only cutting expenditures, but also ensuring no important documents ever go missing, or are otherwise damaged. And incorporating remote capture, so that people at the outer reaches of an organization can upload documents as they need to, with ease and efficiency, only increases those benefits.
