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In an age of emerging digital technology, why is the use of paper in the workplace still on the increase?

The Myth of the Paperless Office by Abigail Sellen and Richard Harper

And for that matter, why are we still using paper at all? Experts have been predicting over the last thirty years the concept of the paperless office. Yet research from a new book called The Myth of the Paperless Office, by Professor Richard Harper and Abigail Sellen, indicates that the use of paper has increased and that this increase is actually due to the introduction of new digital technology.

Case studies on the use of e-mail in the workplace show that it can lead to a 40% increase in paper consumption and this doesn't take into account the amount of paper used to print information from the Internet.

Ethnography

In an attempt to explain this phenomenon, authors Harper and Sellen examine how paper is used and, interestingly, how people use paper in conjunction with electronic systems. By conducting 'people watching' studies (ethnography) and analysing a number of case studies, the authors conclude that people like and prefer working with paper. Indeed many activities are undertaken electronically but at some stage end up on paper because digital technology fails to take on the 'properties of paper'.

"Putting new technologies in place doesn't necessarily reduce the amount of paper used" says Harper, who is professor at the University of Surrey. "Rather, it may simply shift the point at which documents are printed out. Organisations may pursue paperlessness for the wrong reasons. They may want to get rid of paper simply because it is a symbol of the old-fashioned past, rather than an ineffective technology."

Looking closely at paper reveals why many existing digital technologies are inferior to paper for certain key tasks such as reading. Reading is not always conducted in a linear fashion. In reality, reading at work involves a variety of different disciplines including scanning, cross-referencing and in depth analysis. These disciplines in turn require different interactional functions from the reader. Current e-books show that designers have paid little attention to the need for people to navigate through, mark up and work across multiple documents as they read. Looking at paper use suggests innovative ways forward for digital reading as well as for other technologies.

Shortfall

On the other hand, Harper and Sellen point out the shortfalls of paper usage in the modern office, such as for filing, archiving and document retrieval, tasks which obviously favour digital methods.

Says Abigail Sellen: "Until such time as digital technologies can provide equal or better support for many of the tasks that are central to using information, the future for paper continues to look bright."

The authors conclude that rather than pursue the ideal of the paperless office, we should work towards a future in which paper and electronic document tools work in concert and organisational processes make the best use of both paper and digital media.

The Myth of the Paperless Office by Abigail Sellen and Richard Harper (MIT Press, £16.95).

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