Index cards taught office workers to think in layers when, in the 1890s, a filing clerk created the invention of the nested folder. The Kardex cabinet, used in the offices of insurance companies and the records rooms of hospitals well into the 1970s, was not a storage system. It was a pointing system. Each index card stood for a physical document that was stored elsewhere. The contents of the Kardex drawer were location data about the documents: subject, sub-subject, date, reference number.
That is to distinguish between a library catalogue drawer and a filing system. uk/catalogues-and-collections/how-we-describe-and-catalogue-our-collections){rel=”nofollow”} approach to management looks very similar to the way that any user manages a shared drive, for example. A hierarchy of categories that narrow down the search for relevant items until the final item is found.
It took a long time for office workers to grasp the new way of thinking about how they did their work with index cards. That new way was to file by client, then by year and then by document type. Each drawer was like a giant file catalogue and as you opened and shut drawers with a tab flicked here and there your hand would learn the layers of your filing system as your mind was working through the files in a linear manner. A flat pile of papers is just a jumbled up mess. But with one layer of categorization a file can be retrieved time and time again. With two layers of categorization even the biggest of files will be retrievable. For file management software, take a look at www.watermarktech.co.uk/file-management-software.
The same principles of filing were then translated into digital filing systems. These systems basically carry the Kardex system forward in a more rapid manner. The same kinds of folders and subfolders are created. The same distinction between a folder and its contents is maintained. e. putting a physical tab on a document) is used. The main difference is that of speed, and that of being able to keep more links etc between files. For those who have not acquired the layered filing habit, however, filing paper or digital documents results in the same kind of chaos: all the files in one place, none of them findable .There is a useful background explanation of how large collections are catalogued and described.
