The paperless office

Interesting information about the dream of the so-called "paperless office." Though we're far from "paperless" we're reducing paper use by 0.9% a year since 1999--a good thing since before then it was increasing by 5.7%.

As to my own paper use now compared to 5 years ago? Almost everything gets done online: publications can be submitted and downloaded online, e-mails help in sharing informationa and edits to papers and pretty much everything else gets done online, so my paper use is down to almost zero. Others in the lab still print out every single paper they read and I sometimes find it odd since it's so much easier for me to read things on screen and to find them on a hard drive rather than search through file cabinets. It's those publications that aren't available online but are absolutely necessary that really kill me because I need to get up off my ass, walk over to the library, find my way through endless aisles of ancient texts and use what was once known as a "xerox" to get my very own copy. On the one hand it's kind of fun since I can daydream about scientists past, and Countway library has some interesting historical medical implements on exhibit to facilitate that daydream. But sometimes I'd just like to have a robot do that work for me and bring it up on my screen for me to read.