Document Storage Services Key Terms

File away these key terms associated with document storage services
By M. Worcester Document storage used to be bulky and dusty, but with computer technology it is all about scanning and making digital copies of documents for storage and retrieval on computers. Computer storage of documents takes much less space, but comes with its own lingo.

Document storage services digitize documents and organize them into a database that you can easily search. They may store documents as images or text, depending on your needs. With document storage services key terms, you'll know the best features to look for in your service.

Database

A database is an organized collection of data that is set up so a computer can easily sort and retrieve information from it. Using a database, you can store and retrieve documents when needed.
Try:  Find an extensive glossary of terms you'll run across when dealing with document storage, including database, at ITS Imaging.

Document imaging, electronic imaging and digitizing

All of these terms refer to the process of creating or capturing a digital image from a printed document. Many digital documents use a computer to create them, so they're relatively easy to deal with in digital storage. But some companies have lots of paper documents, either forms or records from pre-computer days, that they need to scan into the computer in order to store them digitally.
Try:  Browse through a glossary of terms related to document storage, including document imaging, at the American Health Information Management Association, which has a nice glossary with complete definitions.

Image resolution

The resolution of a scanned image refers to the number of dots per inch that make up the image. The greater the resolution, the more clear and easy to read a document will be. Documents stored for viewing only on a computer screen can have a lower resolution than those that you will need to print, since computer printers print at a higher resolution than the computer screen displays.
Try:  Check out a glossary of terms relating to document storage, including image resolution, at Princeton Imaging.

Optical character recognition

Optical character recognition, or OCR for short, is how a computer and scanner translate a scanned page of text into pure text rather than an image. You can electronically search a document stored as text for keywords and other content, whereas an image file you can't. Text files also take up much less storage space on a computer than image files.
Try:  Read a description of optical character resolution and other digital imaging terms at Conservation OnLine.

Full text search

If a document storage and retrieval system has full text search, a user can search for any string of text that the text might contain in any of the documents, and the search will find it.
Try:  ColumbiaSoft offers document management with a full-text search feature.

Indexing

Indexing involves identifying the parts of each document that you will want to search for, and creating the database so you can search for parts and find them. Rather than search each and every document, the index will be a list of the documents stored with the important data fields in each one.
Try:  Get a definition of indexing, and other terms that come up when dealing with document storage, at Compact.