The First Paperless Library Shows the Advantages of Technology

Libraries going paperless seem like a strange and impossible concept, but it’s happening. The Independent reported that Bexar County in Texas has been taking the issue of electronic documentation being popular and put it to good use by making the first paperless library.

The library also does a fantastic job of showing what paperless technology can do for customer interaction and worker efficiency.

The first paperless library

Bexar County’s library was dubbed BiblioTech and currently has 600 e-readers, 200 pre-loaded enhanced e-readers made especially for children, 400 computers, 10 laptops, and 40 tablets for the public to use, according to The Independent. Bexar has never had a public library or bookstore before, so this was a huge accomplishment.

The source mentioned the library’s mission is to give the county the necessary tools to thrive as citizens of the 21st century to enhance education and literacy and promote reading as recreation. The library utilizes cloud technology and document management software to organize its e-books and documents.

“The thing that excites me most is that our staff can dedicate their time to helping visitors. They aren’t tied up re-shelving, filing and categorizing,” Laura Cole, special project coordinator at BiblioTech, told Metro. “They spend most of their time providing one-on-one instruction with visitors, teaching people how to use devices and how to source materials. It’s a more interactive library experience.”

The benefits of going paperless

The advantages of paperless are not just in this library, but can also be in a company’s office space. Cole mentioned how much more time employees had to build up customer relationships and do other things, and that’s exactly the benefit technology can provide within companies.

Employees have more time when they’re not searching for reports, since they are digitally stored in an organized manner with a document management software, mentioned the Forum of Private Business. Simplicity is a main characteristic of paperless documentation, and both customers and employees have their needs fulfilled when it is put in place.

Just like BiblioTech, paperless offices encourage 21st century technology and create better productivity. The Forum of Private Business highlighted that business development is heightened when paperless workflow is implemented, and there is little fear of security breaches when document management systems are connected to secure servers.

Only authorized users are able to retrieve documents on certain systems, which is much safer than physical paper documents and can be found by anyone.

The first paperless library is a wonderful example of what technology can do for one community and showcases the benefits of document management software.