The manual search files consist of paper copy documents held loosely in folders which are kept in pigeon-hole filing cabinets; these cabinets are located in storage rooms close to the examiners' rooms to which the folders are taken when needed for search, or in the examiners' rooms themselves.

In order to reduce the bulk of the manual search files and the amount of classification work, whenever an application is republished as such or as a granted patent, normally only one of these documents is included in the manual search files.