Abstracto

Web Based Document Archiving Using Time Stamp and Barcode Technologies A Case of the University of Zambia

Brian M Mutale, Jackson Phiri

Documents need to be sorted, searched, accessed, copied, modified and sometimes transmitted over a computer network using a document archiving system. A document archiving system is a system used to manage, store electronic documents and send alarms at given times. Documents in the archives refers to information which is not required on a day to day basis, but which needs to be retained for a certain period, and also information which is retained in perpetuity and referred to infrequently but periodically [17]. In this study, we are proposing a document archiving system which will integrate barcoding, time stamping and mobile technologies to improving on the achieving and retrieval processes. We begin this study with the baseline line study in an effort to establish the challenges faced by institutions of learning in document archiving. The study is based on the University of Zambia (UNZA), a public learning institution. The results from our study indicate that 70% of the offices use the manual box file system in Document achieving. They also lack storage space for box files with 80% having difficulties in retrieving old documents. Based on this study, we designed and implemented a document archiving system. The system was developed in C#. It has time stamp integrated with short messaging system (SMS) for reminders and barcode which is electronically stapled on the soft copies before being archived to improve on the identity of the document.