As time goes by

The more time I spend at this desk shuffling paper around, the more I realise the importance of a properly set-up database of metadata about the documents that I control. I am, incidentally, saying this as I finish redesigning my document control database (or, rather, the data entry that tends to follow on from such a redesign.). The number of tables I have got have shrunk to something far less ridiculous, and the number of queries that appear will, equally, explode rather dramatically. Well - more or less.

I think it would be very easy to get out of control with the quantity of metadata one generates and maintains surrounding documents. All I really have to do with them is to make sure that they are all under control and regularly reviewed. Which means that information on such things as document numbers, and dates of last review, are important. Information along the lines of which documents are referred to in other documents (in other words, a cross-referencing system) is relevant for the poor benighted Evil Paperwork Fairy, but only if it's set up properly. Otherwise it is nothing but a waste of space. My first attempt at cross-referencing was a waste of space. Hopefully, future attempts at cross-referencing will be a little less unwieldy. Hopefully.

A part of me would love to have the whole mess taken out of my hands and put into the hands of a computerised document control system - but the rest of me is loving the challenge of bringing sense to it all.