​I am the proud owner and the data curator at Forr's Keypunching and Data Services.

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Forr's Keypunching was started over 35 years ago by my mother, Marion Forr, an entrepreneur and believer in always staying cutting edge with technology and providing the best care and attention to each and every customer, no matter the size or the volume. Marion began her career as a keypunch operator at IBM in Philadelphia. Because of her skill and talent at the keyboard and her ability to program she was able to establish herself as a subcontractor in the Metro and Suburban areas of Pennsylvania.

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Marion's high level of care and love for the company, our employees and our clients have been adopted by myself as I took over the stewardship of leading the company.

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​Forr's has the technology, the understanding and the ability to help our clients turn their documents into searchable and retrievable information.

My background and education is in Philosophy and Art with training in the fine arts, graphic design and illustration. When my mother was ready to convert her Unix-based Mainframe data entry system to a PC based server based platform, she approached me to head the conversion. I was hesitant as my sole experience with technology was with a Mac in a graphic design studio. I planted myself in an office space for three months in front of a C:/ prompt and entered the world of MS-DOS. I fully embraced it and quickly realized how it, and the new 3.51 operating system, and the NT 4.0 Server could move our business forward.​

I studied and executed setting-up a NT Server based network with workstation nodes. I embraced both the hardware and software side of the technology so I could easily build/ re-build computers and troubleshoot software and hardware issues. I learned Visual Basic so that I could translate all the UNIX based data entry templates into our new PC based data entry system. I was able to maintain our IBM 029 keypunch style of entry with our new system. This keyboard embeds the numeric characters into the alpha keys. Our fingers never leave the home row which improves our performance, accuracy and speed.

Once the new system was fully converted and running strong, I was reviewing my role at Forr's and how I might be able to integrate my passion for the Arts and Antiques into this new digital world. A new file type had emerged by Adobe, '.PDF'. Upon studying this new file type, I quickly realized how it could impact the digital world and they way we relate to data. The idea of a portable database was very appealing. This platform was also an opportunity to be able to convert historical documents into a digital document. Since the Reader was free, this meant any book or document would be accessible to anyone with a computer.

Forr's was given the opportunity to work closely with Adobe on a project with Interactive Bureau. Forr's provided the service of converting Gustav Stickley's 183 issues of The Craftsman. This conversion took 3 years and pushed the limits of both the hardware and the software that was available at the time. 'The Craftsman on CD-ROM' is now the search tool used by students, teachers and Arts and Crafts enthusiasts as the primary research piece for this historical document set.

 

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It was through this project that I fully embraced the technology and the digital world and how it could improve all of our lives. By converting documents to electronic data gives us all the ability to have access to information so quickly.

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in kindness,
Jacqueline Forr