Actually Judy, we type everything into the database that generates our report to our customer.  For those customers who insist on their forms being used, we do so by hand and then do data entry whenever it is slow. Our deed copies are generated by Data Tree (we only cover St Louis County, St Louis City and St Charles County) and we maintain those copies in a "library" within the same database.  Any older documents that we have to obtain directly from the county recorder's office is scanned directly into Adobe from a Hewlett Packard scanner and placed in that same library.   A few years back, we tried scanning a large volume of information but it just seems like there is still no program that will do it efficiently enough for what I am willing (and able) to pay at this time.  I have all the old files; and we are slowly entering them into our system when we have time but I don't know if we will ever be able to get the whole ten years worth entered.  But after working for title companies for so many years, it is just impossible for me to part with a file after spending maybe a half day on locating all the breaks in the chain and/or easements and restrictions.  I have done a considerable amount of commercial and environmental chains - Brett Perry  and I go way back - and you may not realize how interchangeable some of the older information is.  There may be a common thread for ten or fifteen City Blocks or a whole section of land that is now five subdivisions.  Plus, Easements and Restrictions are common to many lots within a subdivision - so a "Summary" file is not unreasonable to maintain.  A lot of the independents that we run into in St Louis County can't understand why we maintain our files and look at us funny when we ask why they don't. For one thing, you never know when information will no longer be available at the County level - so many of the older records are being filmed or put away and just not as accessible as in years past. And after all, their customers are repeat customers - just like our customers are repeat customers.  If we did the search work on one property for one client - there are many times that we end up doing it for a second or third client over the next few years. And all we have to do is run up that original report - we have all the deeds already.  It's just a matter of bringing it to date.  We call it a "Title Plant" when we save files and maintain indexes to our orders.  And that Title Plant is actually an asset in this industry; if the search work is considered by the local industry as having value.  Hopefully, our company has that kind of history in the St Louis area.

Sorry...I didn't mean to ramble on and on.  Anyhow, my son saved us by writing a program for me that enables us to produce reports and maintain a searchable database at the same time.  But we still have lots and lots of paper around.....ugh...  If you like, I can ask my son about the program he wrote.  Just email me and I will be glad to help in any way I can.  Our volume may not be as substantial as a lot of folks on here..and that may make a difference...

Ellen