I need a WordPress document management plugin

[Webservant]

We have a number of historical documents that I would like to scan and place on a section of our website. What I need is a WordPress plugin which would allow end-users to browse or search for these documents. I don't need something which is merely a download manager - being able to browse for the documents or search for them is critical. The documents could be in either pdf or JPEG format. Any ideas?

 

[Wayne]

Maybe I can learn something if I watch real close.

I scan documents and run them through an OCR program (FineReader), dumping the content into a Word .doc, then after proofing, create a pdf file, which I then upload.
The pdf is fully searchable that way.
Another approach is to simply create and upload a .pdf image scan. My lack of experience with this approach however keeps me from saying whether the result would be searchable.

 

[Webservant]

Maybe I can learn something if I watch real close.

I scan documents and run them through an OCR program (FineReader), dumping the content into a Word .doc, then after proofing, create a pdf file, which I then upload.
The pdf is fully searchable that way.
Another approach is to simply create and upload a .pdf image scan. My lack of experience with this approach however keeps me from saying whether the result would be searchable.

That would work - but all the documents or images would all be on the same page, if I understand you. That would work for a few documents, but we may end up with several hundred. I want to organize them by type, too and a single page document works against that.

EDIT - Whoa Wayne I just realized who you are. You guys don't have any plans to put records online?

 

[Wayne]

I have put a lot of material online, mostly in pdf format, and occasionally as images.

Warfield's little tract against the revision of the Westminster Confession is a set of images strung together on a single web page.

Articles are almost always fully searchable pdf files.

Those have been my two main ways of posting material. It's simple, but it gets the job done and loads quickly.

EDIT: "You guys" Ha! It's just me here at the Historical Center. I wish I did have some help.

EDIT(2): And to answer your final question, I don't think we would ever plan to put documents online in a wholesale fashion. Too much work, too much bandwidth and too much information. In the end, electronic media is great for access, but is not truly suitable as a means of preservation. Acid-free paper, properly stored, still is best in that category.

 

[Webservant]

I have put a lot of material online, mostly in pdf format, and occasionally as images.

Warfield's little tract against the revision of the Westminster Confession is a set of images strung together on a single web page.

Articles are almost always fully searchable pdf files.

Those have been my two main ways of posting material. It's simple, but it gets the job done and loads quickly.

EDIT: "You guys" Ha! It's just me here at the Historical Center. I wish I did have some help.

EDIT(2): And to answer your final question, I don't think we would ever plan to put documents online in a wholesale fashion. Too much work, too much bandwidth and too much information. In the end, electronic media is great for access, but is not truly suitable as a means of preservation. Acid-free paper, properly stored, still is best in that category.

I am going to troll around on your site for awhile.

We have some old records, and every time someone calls to ask a question about them, the church secretary has to drag out the book and every time it's opened, it's damaged a little (yes it is that old) so that was my rationale. I figure we scan everything and that way the old books can be safely stored away.

 

[Wayne]

That is the one great way in which electronic media do contribute to preservation.

A good image scan at 300 dpi will do the job. Frame after frame until you've gone through the entire book. Re-label each image file as "page01", etc. and keep all from one book in one folder, labeling the folder under a short version of the book title: "Session1844-65" or whatever.

Then you can simply upload the entire thing to the web as is, or you can paste the images into html or php pages. If you use the former approach, the address might look like "www.aisquith.org/documents/Session/1844-65/p01.jpg" and each image will show up on a blank white field. If you paste the images into a web page format, you'll retain other information around each image scan that you might want to keep available.