Document management system for searching scanned documents

A system for creating a searchable collection of paper documents, wherein the paper documents are separately characterized by document characterization parameters, the system comprising:

• a receiver for receiving document characterization parameters associated with a plurality of paper documents and a plurality of digitally-encoded images of the plurality of paper documents;
• an optical character recognition (OCR) component for performing OCR on the received plurality of digitally-encoded images to generate searchable text corresponding to the plurality of paper documents;
• a storage component for storing the received document characterization parameters, the received plurality of digitally-encoded images, and the generated searchable text in association with each other as a plurality of digital documents that are organized by a relational database;
• a search component for receiving a search query and applying the search query against the stored searchable text or the stored document characterization parameters in order to identify one or more of the plurality of digitally-encoded images corresponding to paper documents responsive to the search query;
• and
• a graphical interface component for:
• generating a graphical interface to permit a user to search for a digital document and to select a particular digital document;
• and
• edit the selected digital document;
• edit the received document characterization parameters associated with the selected digital document;
• add one or more links to notes, wherein the notes are attached to the selected digital document, and wherein each link is displayed in conjunction with a date on which a note was created;
• and
• identify other related digital documents that are associated with a common document characterization parameter,
• wherein the common document characterization parameter is one of two or more displayed characterization parameters that are associated with the selected digital document,
• wherein the user initiates the identification of the other related digital documents by selecting the displayed common document characterization parameter, and,
• wherein the other related digital documents are idnetified by utilizing the relational database.

A computer-readable medium containing instructions for execution on a computer to create a searchable collection of paper documents, wherein the paper documents are separately characterized by document characterization parameters, by:

• receiving document characterization parameters associated with a plurality of paper documents;
• optically scanning the plurality of paper documents to generate a plurality of digitally-encoded images of the paper documents;
• performing optical character recognition on the plurality of digitally-encoded images of the paper documents to generate searchable text corresponding to the plurality of paper documents;
• associating the document characterization parameters with the plurality of digitally-encoded images of the paper documents;
• storing the document characterization parameters, the plurality of digitally-encoded images, and the searchable text in association with each other as a plurality of digital documents that are organized by a relational database, wherein the plurality of digital documents may be searched by applying a search query against the searchable text or the document characterization parameters in order to identify one or more of the plurality of digitally-encoded images corresponding to paper documents responsive to the search query;
• generating a graphical interface to permit a user to search for a digital document and to select a particular digital document;
• and
• generating a graphical document summary page for the selected digital document that displays two or more of the received document characterization parameters associated with the selected digital document and allows a user to:
• edit the selected digital document;
• edit the received document characterization parameters associated with the selected digital document;
• add one or more links to notes, wherein the notes are attached to the selected digital document, and wherein each link is displayed in conjunction with a date on which a note was created;
• and
• identify other related digital documents that are associated with a common document characterization parameter,
• wherein the common document characterization parameter is one of the two or more characterization parameters displayed on the graphical document summary page for the selected digital document,
• wherein the user initiates the identification of the other related digital documents by selecting the displayed common document characterization parameter, and,
• wherein the other related digital documents are identified by utilizing the relational database.