Comparison of Filing Systems

Everyday, 21 trillion general office documents, 76 million letters, 234 million photocopies, and 6oo million figurer print discloses, all in paper, be produced by organizations in America alone. These figures came out from a study by the International Data Corp. All of these bar to paper-based files that are invaluable to the maintenance and progress of institutions.However, as such(prenominal) as resources only become assets if properly handled, these files are only of as much use as an institution knows where they are, and how to access the selective information they contain (Langemo and Robles).In baffle to realize this, it is necessary for an agency or office to establish a filing arranging that satisfies both the criteria of effectiveness and efficiency (Texas State depository library and Archives Commission). For this, there are a number of selections. Therefore, it is essential to discriminate and contrast the features that each filing system can offer so that a reason able choice can be made.Let us startle consider the Alphabetic filing system. Also referred to as a direct-access system, it is the or so extensively locked classification system. As the term direct-access implies, its advantage is that it is easy because anyone wanting to access information from the files need not check with an index.A drug user only needs to identify the first letter of the label of the data in question and search for it among the files in the order that it appears in the alphabet. though there is a standard prescribed in using an alphabetical filing system, most offices alphabetize their files loosely according to their prerogative intention (Langemo and Robles).A seeming upgraded version of the alphabetic system is the Geographical classification system. In this system, files are arranged by geographic location, e.g. by city, county, province, state, region, or country, and are further positioned in alphabetical order. Today, government offices and petrol eum industries still employ the Geographic classification system in filing land-oriented records (Langemo and Robles).Meanwhile, when certain compositors case of records requires numeric ordering, Numeric classification systems are employed. This type of filing system makes it easier to manage paper documents either by numbering the border of end-tabbed folders, or by utilizing shelf filing equipment, computer index databases, and color code schemes (Langemo and Robles).Finally, when it is inappropriate to categorize records according to names either by individuals, organizations, institutions, locations, or agencies, Subject filing systems are used. This system is divided into two arrangements mental lexicon and encyclopaedic. When the topics of the files are arranged alphabetically, they are in dictionary arrangement. Meanwhile, in an encyclopedic arrangement, associated items in a subject file are classified alphabetically under a superior caption (Langemo and Robles).All of t hese four filing systems are advantageous for specific types of files. It is up to the agencies to evaluate which among these filing systems is appropriate for them. sorrow to identify this can lead to a waste of time, money, resources, or worse, heavy complications. The decision making practices of an institution will significantly be more than effective if fitting filing system is employed (Texas State subroutine library and Archives Commission).Reference CitedLangemo M., and Marcel Robles. Upgrade Your Office file System. Office lead and Office Solutions Magazine. Feature. December 2001. 22 Sept. 2006. .Texas State Library and Archives Commission. Filing Systems. Records Management Publications. Texas State Library and Archives Commission. 26 Sept. 2002. 22 Sept. 2006. http//www.tsl.state.tx.us/slrm/recordspubs/fs.html.