Collaboration between TU CREFM

Within CREFM, the Technical Information Management (TIB) team is responsible for collecting, securing and updating information used in the execution of maintenance, renovation, preservation and new construction.

Adriaan Jung, technical information manager: “We have been looking at scanning our documents for a while now because it is a barrier to requesting them. Colleagues often need the documents quickly and then it costs time and money to request them.”

For its documents, CREFM uses the TU Delft archive in The Hague. Over the past 100 years, construction and specification drawings, among other things, have been archived of all buildings on campus and this covers no fewer than 2521 archive boxes. Every week a request is made by, for instance, a project manager who needs a construction drawing. From The Hague, a courier brings the right documents to Delft. A costly and inefficient process

Besides the need to scan documents, there is also the question of which documents to scan. Adriaan spent half a day walking through the archive in The Hague with three colleagues. Together, they looked at everything and determined which types of archive boxes were still in use. It then turned out that the contents of one-third of the boxes were still current and two-thirds were no longer. “In the latter category, you can think of drawings of buildings that have already been demolished or are no longer under the management of TU Delft.”

Once this was determined, Adriaan started looking for a suitable supplier to scan the documents. This he did in with the Library’s Document Management & Archive (DMA) department. The quotes he received were on the high side but DMA had a good solution. They happened to already be in contact with Werkse! They guide Delfters with a distance to the labour market to suitable work. Despite all efforts, too many people are still on the sidelines. People who want to and can work, but do not know how to make the step due to their labour disability. Werkse! recently started offering scanning services. After several quality checks, the result turned out to meet both the requirements from CRE and from the Archive Act. Currently, the first 182 boxes, containing more than 6,200 documents, have been scanned.

For TU Delft, Werkse! is a well-known party. TU Delft is aware of its social role within the municipality of Delft and its surroundings. Monique van Ewijck, Project Leader Implementation Participation Act at TU Delft: “We have now fulfilled 72 jobs from the Jobs Agreement within TU Delft and want to grow to 234 jobs by 2025. We naturally count the employees at Werkse! who carry out the scanning work for us towards this target.”

In total, a team of eight people is working for CREFM. Frank Jutte and Ingrid Bruijnius have scanned a lot of documents for CREFM over the past 3 months. The work has to be done carefully as it often involves old paper. Before scanning, it is carefully checked whether the paper is caught by the scanner. The team works with 3 different types of scanners appropriate to the document; a book, a stack of paper with a staple or working drawings. Ingrid:

“We proceed carefully. All cracks, especially at the edges we tape off first. Sometimes a drawing is up to 3 metres wide. Then we work in pairs. One scans and the other unfolds and folds the drawing. It is also important that the drawing lies straight. “Otherwise you get black edges, says Ingrid.” Frank also enjoys the work. He has nice colleagues and the work is varied because you deal with different types of documents. He scans on Wednesdays and Thursdays for CREFM and hopes to continue doing this for a while.

Adriaan: I like the fact that this job is so much more than just scanning a document. It means a huge efficiency gain for CREFM, employment for people who find it hard to find work elsewhere and I get to know new people inside and outside TU Delft. In addition, it is also a great opportunity for me to show that I can properly coordinate an assignment involving so many parties!