Field Book Storage

Its taken a lot of time, mine have been scanned and dumped. It was the only solution.

@mightymoe Yep. I am now scanning notes from each job as I go. I store the scans with the rest of the project files. This keeps me from having to do a lot of scanning at one time.

@bushaxe?ÿ

Always having been a cog and not a big gear in the groups I've worked with, this is what we've always done too.

I did open a closet once of probably hundred maybe thousands af both yellow and orange field books, I was just in awe.....

@bushaxe?ÿ

We are almost there, the last little push are old files from the 70's. One big one was for a job where the license holder is long passed and no one here has a license in that state. The job was huge, I did most of work, but there is no chance we would ever go back there or use any of the NAD27 data for anything. Some things just need dumped and pitched.?ÿ

There was a set of topo maps generated in the mid 1970's, along with a mountain of monitoring work. It covered about 50 sq miles of empty lands. Later in the 2000's we did photo control for mapping the same area only expanded by quite a bit and redid the monitoring locations to NAD83. So I'm looking at all those old huge 1970's topos and can't for the life of me figure out why I would keep them.?ÿ

It's good to let stuff go. Clean out your files, clean out your life.?ÿ

We are scanning each job as it's finished, one thing we've learned is to first throw out junk from the folder, copies of copies, things like that. One file I looked through just yesterday had 4 copies of the same deed. There were 5 or six 24x36 in progress plat copies.?ÿ

There is a big paper recycle box near the backroom table, it's constantly being filled and taken to the city recycle bin a 1/2 mile from the office.?ÿ

Frankly it was desperation time with the files, the two file rooms we have were full, boxes were stacked on the files and when they started to be put on the floor it was getting difficult to move around. The times two files we bought and put in the second file room were also packed with big boxes on them, the garage has storage shelves and some old jobs were boxed and stored there. Those were taking over the stake, cap, flagging and rebar storage areas. On the property was a really nice old shed or mini house from the farm that used to occupy the land, it was getting full of boxes too. Now the shed is gone, the garage storage if free again, the file boxes are gone, everything is in the times two (which is almost empty) or the main filing cabinets.

Luckily, when I started up my shop I opted to used loose leaf field notes (with a few exceptions).?ÿ It has made scanning much easier.?ÿ Now I just need to figure a way to dispose of 20 years of binders.

One added advantage to scanning is that I can keep them on the cloud for use in the field as needed.

@mightymoe That's exactly what we did.?ÿ Then we switched to loose leaf and scan notes daily and throw them loose leaf out every few months.

@mightymoe its tough to let go sometimes, but you have to do it. Once you draw a hard line on what to keep and what to toss it gets easier.

It depends on what is in the books and where it may end up being used.

Notes of a design topo aren't going to hold much value if the site is being redeveloped a second or third time. A sworn oath from a landowner could prove crucial decades after being taken.

Records retention needs to be a consistent and comprehensive policy. Statutory, administrative and civil law must be considered and a qualified attorney should do a review. As usual, it depends...

@jitterboogie?ÿ

If it?ÿ for weren't for the cogs, the big wheel wouldn't turn. (Personnel Management 101) ?????ÿ

@flga-2-2?ÿ

And as physics and math works too, the little cogs are always churning along to keep those big flywheels moving at a much more effective pace.....the goal is to survive the cog phase I suppose. Just don't chip the teeth on the cogs, and all is well.

???? ?????ÿ

I like the plastic binder with the loose leaf paper since it's easy to remove and scan.

I've got a couple of boxes full of empty 1" binders if anyone is interested.