I own three scanners, and use my camera extensively to save documents. But it wasn’t until I acquired a Scansnap scanner that I truly “went digital.”

Binders by family name
I actually might have said, earlier, that I didn’t have that many paper files. I had a bin of 8 hanging binders that I have not added to in 6 or 7 years. I had a file drawer of files. And I had a growing pile about 8 inches high of paper that had been waiting for the Scansnap purchase for the last couple years. The problem is that I had some valuable materials amidst those files but wasn’t using them, and didn’t know where they were.
For the last 5-6 years I have exclusively used digital files, and I store new documents in the file structure promptly when I return from a repository visit with photos, or access something I need online. I have these files backed up in a couple of ways.

File cabinet my husband made. The lower is for files, the top is a desk drawer/pencil drawer. The big scanner is on top of it.
Thinking about fires/floods/damage recently, and about the need to lessen the clutter, I decided to make the Scansnap purchase. It wasn’t cheap, which is why I had debated a long time.
But the Fujitsu Scansnap ix500 has changed everything. Imagine going anywhere, on every computer, and still having ready access to ALL your documents, pictures, books and notes. Even on my cell phone!

The ScanSnap doesn’t take up much room when its not in use. It fits nicely on my old portable microfilm side table. View the video below to see it opened up and running.
I started digitizing everything I could find, including household papers. After I went through every notebook and piece of paper in my study, I started eying some bound materials and realized they would be more useful to me if they were searchable pdfs. Plus, I could free up some shelves. I took a box of journals to a copy shop and had the bindings chopped off.
This is a video as one volume is scanned:
Click here for video: vimeo.com/236313111 When the video comes up, click the triangle in the lower corner to play.
I digitized the journal, and tried searching it. It worked beautifully! I can’t wait to digitize more. And when I do, opening Acrobat Reader and using “Advanced Search” under the edit menu will let me search a whole folder of pdf’s at once.
Of course I still love my book scanning stand (custom made by my husband) for delicate materials – I usually use my cell phone camera for this.

The book scanning stand, made by hubs.
I’ve found Scansnap very easy to use. You open the cover, place the papers and press the button. The software opens up automatically and the scanning starts, scanning both sides (duplexing) at once (and it immediately deletes images that it decides are blank, meaning you only get images of the BACKS of your sheets if you have content on them). Then you save the pdf. If you’ve set the scanner to scan to jpg, then each document shows separately in the SnapScan organizer, and you file it. Even that is made easier with group naming. If the papers are different sizes, as long as the tops are aligned, Scansnap seems to have no problem with that.
One feature I love is that each page is scanned to its actual size. So there would never be a need to crop or trim. And the pages seem to scan much more straight (not skewed) than I’ve seen with any other method. And fast? It’s about 25 pages (back and front at once) per minute.
I’m looking forward to using the newly digitized materials more fully, now that they are with my other files. I was actually surprised at the useful things I had buried in those paper files.
The post you are reading is located at: http://onerhodeislandfamily.com/2017/10/01/scansnap-for-genealogy/

Hubs’ newest bookcase, on the porch, in “Tsumani” gray. This may be the last one he ever has to make.