A user affixes one or more action stickers to a collection coversheet to identify, by location on the coversheet, target documents within a previously stored collection of documents. The action stickers also specify actions to be performed on the target documents. The coversheet is scanned and the affixed stickers are located and read. The specified actions are then performed on the target documents. If the specified actions change the organization or architecture of the document collection, an updated version of the collection may be generated and stored, and a new coversheet may be printed. If a collection contains one or more subcollections, the user can apply an action sticker to the collection coversheet so as to cause an action to be performed on a document or item within one of the subcollections. The action stickers may be removable, self-adhesive labels.