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Field Note Retention After Scanning
Since I opened my doors back in the 90’s I’ve used loose leaf Rite in the Rain field notes. I keep them in binders by project number and over the last decade or so I’ve been scanning them as well. My question is, I this digital age, do I need to keep the hard copies and if so, for how long. I don’t see a problem with purging the hard copies. If the scanned copies are good enough for the IRS and recording office why not the rest of the world.
If I keep this up, someday soon my wife will find me dead and rotting in my office. Buried in a mountain of binders.
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21 Replies
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I keep my loose leaf notes in the job folder.
When I return to the same area I put them back in a notebook to add to on the next project and then return them to the job folder when finished.
Digital data can be reprinted as needed and it is your choice to keep the hard copies or send them to recycle or waste management or burn…….
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I have one job that was done in four units. They each got Job#s and back in the early 90’s we were using the same kind of field books you describe. I know one job# has 28 books about 150 pgs each. They are now scanned, I didn’t see keeping the books, and all the other paper, we were running out of room. The books got shuffled to a storage shed in a carboard boxes, the garage still has some of them. Now the shed is gone, the garage is getting thinned out, you have to stop it somewhere. Our file cabinets have room in them now, still have a ways to go, but something has to give.
I chatted with an accountant, they moved into a bigger office and wanted to get rid of old files, I think he said a shredding service was going to charge them 20k to shred all the old files. They do it by the pound, something like 60c per pound, maybe it was more, still when you have 10-20 tons to do…????..
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I worked for a well respected survey shop in Washington that went through and destroyed all records that were more than seven years old on the belief that after seven years there was no legal obligation to retain, and another that kept all field books going back to the sixties.
I have a hard time imagining that anyone would have an issue with a digital scan, but in court things happen that can boggle the mind.
As an entry level chainman I sure did enjoy checking out those old field notes, like I wonder what Bill was doing around the end of the Vietnam War, oh look he was dipping storm structures in Fremont.
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I believe that the courts will respect “records kept in the normal course of business” regardless of how they’re stored. I have testified numerous time in the MA Land Court, and a few times in Superior Court. Never have I been asked for original note, or had to “prove” any of my work. I think that a lot of these beliefs about testifying are base don folks that haven’t done it, and are advocating extreme caution.
Dtp
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I scan all my business and personal paper and shred the originals, but ironically I use bound field books. To me they’re a more convenient size than the loose leaf books.
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I keep everything digital and find no need for a paper copy of anything that I can scan.
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I assume that those going digital have copies of it in different locations – out of town, offshore, in the clouds … – for security.
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Cloud backup daily for me.
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Google Drive cloud backup.
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I do a cloud backup hourly so I’m not worried about loosing the digital versions.
As for notes, I think I will just trash them. I’m not sure that the Rite-In-The-Rain paper is actually recyclable and I recycle my shred. They do not include any personal or confidential information so the can should be fine.
I might even brave the attic, fight off the squire that moved in this winter, and start scanning older years. It is nice having them for quick access.
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Scanning is no problem. I have a nice document scanner in the office and a portable one I can keep the truck. I’ve been scanning the field books after I process my data for several years now.
Its nice to know the phone scanners work. That sounds like a good way to scan my receipts when traveling.
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I might even brave the attic, fight off the squire that moved in this winter, and start scanning older years. It is nice having them for quick access.
Love that (hopefully) typo John. It makes for a very interesting mental picture.
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I scan everything to store it digitally within the job directory. Most of my field notes are now from the collector anyway. Paper notes are generally sketches to help clarify collected data. These sketches are usually on a plot of the deeds I’m carrying with me in the field. I have a few hardbound field books and use about 5-10 pages a year for a sketch or a couple of quick measurements.
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I have a few hardbound field books and use about 5-10 pages a year for a sketch or a couple of quick measurements.
The most common entry in my field books these days is instrument height. I record it at every setup, because it’s the one measurement that, if accidentally changed in the DC, required a trip back to the gun to fix.
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That’s a good idea. Here the receipt ink is vaporised by any exposure to anything environmental, which leaves a bad taste in the mouth when you go to claim for that slap up meal you thought you had on the company’s account.
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The company I worked for had a rule that only original receipts could be used to claim reimbursement, no copies. I suppose they were afraid of multiple claims for one expense. That was before phones could scan the original, but a printout of that is still a copy.
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Same here. Notes are more of place to find the files for a particular point and describe monuments.
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As usual, it depends. You need to determine what you may be needing those notes for.
Rules of civil procedure, administrative procedures acts and district or state court rules will define what is accepted. The knowledge base of opposing counsel will also come into play.
The only (moderately) universally accepted standard would be bound, serially numbered pages, no erasures, original and contemporaneous.
This is no different than any survey question. We need to know the law.
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@john-putnam I am working on cleaning out old files too, I don’t have everything scanned, BUT made the decision to shed everything older than 10 years old and then each year another year goes to the shredder. In Oregon the statue of limitations has run it’s course at 10 years and I almost never pull old paper files so I figure I am good to regain some of my garage. I guess the kick start was cleaning out my Mom’s place and finding her and my Father who had a business for years never threw anything away, what a mess!
I am keeping a few select projects, my 1st job folder and some ongoing projects that get updated periodically, but I would say about 80% is going away.
When I get everything sorted, I am going to have an on site shredder truck come out and shred away.
SHG
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If a file is requested by our board, it has to be in physical form. I’m almost wanting to implement a PDF signing procedure so that the digital copy can hold muster if it is challenged to have been altered. There are no eraser marks left behind in Photoshop
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