The Myth of the Paperless Office

Citation

Reid, C. (2003), "The Myth of the Paperless Office", Journal of Documentation, Vol. 59 No. 2, pp. 220-221. https://doi.org/10.1108/00220410310463518

I feel a lot better having read this book. My desk is covered in paper and there are other bundles all over my office. The faster I fill the wastepaper bin, the faster paper seems to come at me. Am I failing to work smarter and being just an inefficient worker? Having read this book, I am comforted by the fact that the disorderly looking pile on my desk is not a mess – it represents the process going on in my brain of active, ongoing thinking – and that I am not alone. Despite the predictions over the last 30 years that computers would make paper redundant, offices are still stuffed full of it. Information and knowledge workers themselves use 300 per cent more paper than the average office worker.

This book reports the results of research done by Sellen and Harper to address the question “Why, when we have all the latest technology, do we depend on paper so much?” We may all have been convinced that computers would eliminate paper. In fact the opposite is true – consumption is rising. The advent of e‐mail alone has increased office paper use by 40 per cent. It seems that the more information people receive and have access to, the more people need to print it. The authors explain in this book why the paperless office is a myth. This they do as a result of studying how and why people use paper in the workplace.

A variety of different types of organisations and work settings are reported on. These include the International Monetary Fund, the London Air Traffic Control Centre, a chocolate manufacturing company and crime reporting in the police force. The authors used a variety of research techniques to gather data including diary methods, observations, video and interviews. In each organisation they found people using paper because it is a much friendlier medium than a computer screen for creating new documents and for collaborative working. The authors talk about the “affordances” of paper – in other words, what paper allows us to do. As it is light, flexible and opaque, paper can be carried, folded, manipulated and written on. Four affordances are outlined in the book – tangibility, spatial flexibility, tailorability and manipulability. By considering these and studying people working with paper, the authors show that we really only get to grips with the information content in a document when we physically handle it. We need to use both hands and eyes to grasp the meaning of any text fully. Understanding this, the limitations of current electronic technologies become very obvious.

Digital technologies also have their own affordances. They can display dynamic information, allow for quick and easy update of documents, store vast amounts of information and offer fast searching and retrieval capabilities. Paper has many roles in an organisation and therefore any attempt to alter its role or replace it requires a great deal of considered thought. Redesigned work processes will most probably result in paper and digital technologies continuing to work side by side – at least for the foreseeable future. The authors in their final chapter argue that the developers of new technologies need to accept and recognise the importance of paper and turn their attention to designing systems that integrate paper into the electronic world rather than attempting to always replace it.

This is an interesting, easy to read volume but one also based on solid research. Numerous black‐and‐white photographs, charts, tables and graphs are used throughout to illustrate some of the points being made. This is a book which should be read by office managers and designers of document management systems. It also contains many useful insights for anyone who handles paper.