I have clients that do it both ways, but I believe you are probably managing
your collection the way the majority of people are doing.

You can ship your boxes to a commercial vendor and they will be more than
happy to index it into their system and provide you will a listing (report)
of records in the system.  At as Patrick C stated at a nice cost.  My guess
is it is one of their more profitable services.

I believe the majority of vendors in our local area provide bar code labels
(at a cost) and boxes (at a cost) and you apply the label to the box and
submit a transmittal form with the box content information that includes the
barcode number.  If your vendor uses a barcode system, use your box number
and add their barcode number on your index, so you can retrieve by asking
for the box by the barcode number.  They have the barcode number matched
against the storage location number in their center on their computer.

If you vendor doesn't use a barcode system, input the off-site storage
location number against the box number when you receive your report back
from the vendor after they place it on their shelf.

Bob Dalton, CRM
Dalton Consulting
253-229-4555
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-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Nolene Sherman
Sent: Monday, October 31, 2005 3:06 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Indexing Active Records

I have always indexed active files and have just added a box number to the
file index once the file goes to off-site storage. I was speaking to a
colleague who mentioned that they use their off-site vendor's indexing
system exclusively. I didn't think much of it at the time, but then wondered
how, or if, they index files still on-site. I was wondering how common is my
practice vs. only indexing files once they are boxed and sent off.

Nolene Sherman
Records Manager
CJ Segerstrom & Sons * South Coast Plaza

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