When GRA first set up the filing system, we were researching hundreds of families per week. The supplies we used were:

• A two inch, 3-ring binder.  
• 2 or 3 packages of colored index tabs that have eight per package.  
• 4 to 8 packages of clear index tabs, again that have eight per package.

Filing clerks spent their days typing numbers from 1 to 300 or more on the perforated, tearable pages of cleared indexed tabs. They then folded the tab numbers and slipped them into the plastic index tab covers. Often by the time the binders were ready to turn over to the clients, the little numbers had fallen out, the drilled holes for the notebooks had torn, and the page area where the clear tabs was attached had torn.

We calculated that we were spending ten times as much in labor as we needed to if we could just find proper tabs printed on heavier paper, dipped in a solution to strengthen them from breaking, pre drilling holes and dipping the holes for strength as well. We searched for several months, when it was decided that we would need to design our own tabs in the size and style most appropriate for the work that we do. By purchasing $10,000 worth a year, we could keep the price well below the cost of commercial products.

That was the beginning of the filing tab system that could be used in file cabinets and notebooks.

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