Hey Kevin,

You should give imaging a try.  You most likely already have scanner (I hope), so you just need the software.  Paper Port is a very inexpensive solution, starting at $99; the professional version is $199 (and I have heard its worth it).  I know a few abstractors that use it and it has worked well for them.

When I first decided to try imaging, we bought a cheap scanner that came with Paper Port and we used it for a few weeks.  We liked the benefits of imaging and decided to upgrade rather soon to something more powerful.  However, you may find that Paper Port does just fine for your needs.

If you decide you want to back-scan everything you currently have stored on paper, you will definitely want to upgrade to a high-speed document scanner.  We use Canon DR3060 scanners that are rated at about 40 pages per minute and cost around $2,500.  Something like that will make light work of your back scanning.   If you just decide to do it on a go-forward basis, you may be fine with your existing scanner.

Next, you will want to implement some sort of back-up routine.  You don't want to put all that work into it and them have a harddrive crash and lose everything.  You can do this with an external harddrive, or even burn them to CDs.  What ever works for you.

In any regard, imaging can be relatively inexpensive.  However, you can spend upwards of $15,000 on a complete system that is networked through-out your office with high speed scanners and automated back-ups.

It is worth doing.  If you do a good job of indexing everything as you scan them, it can really be a blessing to have instant access to all of your searches.  We have saved our selves a lot of work.  Imaging has been a terrific decision for us.

Best,
Robert A. Franco
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