Fab from Paris's Profile

Just a personal testimony on that.

Years ago I've first sorted and then scanned all the paper I need to keep, in parallel with implementing the GTD method (http://www.davidco.com/about-gtd).

After a fews years running this way, I really appreciate :
- the earning of space (several meters of files at work and at home)
- the earning of time after the initial scanning (retrieving any document takes only seconds now)
- the ubiquity of my documents, thanks to my dropbox (http://www.dropbox.com)
- the facility to send any document to any correspondant

BUT it requires :
- time to scan (a fast scanner with a document feeder is necessary)
- a good and long-lasting basic software (I use Acrobat Pro to produce indexed and organized documents in a long-lasting standard digital format)
- an automatic backup system with a set of copies in another place just in case (I'm considering the Apple Time Capsule instead of USB disks)
- a real sense of organization !

Now the feeling of having everything on hand, anytime and anywhere, without any space consideration, is VERY VERY VERY pleasant.

And when I die it will be very simple to erase the stuff in a click, without bothering inheritants with the duty to sort tons of useless papers ;o)

I understand your concern.

I scanned my professionnal library in order to gain space and be able to read my books from everywhere (via my Dropbox).

First I cut the bindings with a professional guillotine. Fortunately I could ask a colleague to do it for me.

Then I scanned the pages with a sheet-feeder scanner (an old HP scanjet 8250, certainly there are now cheaper and faster machines).

The scan was performed with Adobe Pro software which includes optical character recognition (useful if you want to Index the contents for later research) and bookmarking (useful to navigate quickly in the chapters with Adobe Reader).

Cutting the bindings was the most complicated part since I had to find a free access to a professional equipment.

Scanning and ocr'ing are automated steps, it is rather slow but you can do something else during these operations.

The most time-consuming for me was bookmarking the chapters, but this is an option, and you can do it with the current e-reading.

Cutting the bindings forbids reusing or selling the books, it's a choice I made. The final result is of great value for me in terms of space-saving, accessibility, simplicity of annotating and quoting, and reading comfort (thanks to ipad).