The short: I am requesting tips and techniques for documenting information from books and journal articles that spans a vast number of topics that is catalogued in a way for effecient recall of points of interest.
The long: I am working on my thesis and it has brought to the forefront a general issue I have struggled with for a while: documenting sources for future reference. While it may be practical to read (or reread) dozens of books for a larger project (like a thesis) more often than note either
(a) I may be thinking of a small snippet that adds insight to an issue but isn't directly related (i.e. is outside the bounds of the primary material); or
(b) I am writing something shorter and topical and may have in mind a wide variety of resources that focus on other issues but provide historical, grammatical, or literary data relevant for current project.
Some background: I do a lot of academic reading related to Biblical studies and the Ancient Near East with the dual purpose of homiletics and academic writing. Information gleaned from various resources can be roughly sorted in general categories spanning topical, grammatical, historical, and/or canonical.
This last weekend I was writing a paper for school and I had remembered a number of specific points I wanted to reference from a book and a couple journal articles I had read over 5 years ago. I spent 20 minutes sifting through the book for the specific data I wanted and took a bit longer to find the journal articles I specifically wanted to recall (and when I found them importantly brought to my attention some other relevant issues I would need to address, so referencing this entries was important).
I have pretty good recall but I am finding I am not only reading a lot of books with significant density but also my range of topics I must master/recall continues to expand. I love it... but I need to become more efficient!
I have tried various note taking methods with various success but I am not finding them suitable from here on out.
* Stickies. (+) They are very quick. (-) Some books may end up 2 or 3 stickies on every page. If I mark the sticky with a note about "what" topic is relevant the process becomes much slower--and importantly I then need to migrate my notes to some sort of document(s). If I don't I have to remember the book/author and specific point I want to remember which isn't always easy when you may have read many books on the specific topic. If I don't annotate the stickies I end up with a book with around a hundred stickies which is pointless.
* Marking the book. Similar issues as stickies but you lose the nice "tabs" for quick finding and still need to move the data digitally or have a perfect memory of topic and what book you read it in.
* Notepads. Horrible handwriting, laborus, still have to migrate the content, have to read in a place where I can use a notepad...
* Audio notes (my most recent method). (+) Very quick to record. (-) I still need to migrate the data to a digital format (typically (a) notes by book and then (b) sorting the notes topically and/or by relevant verse). I need to be more concise in my audio notes, but the issue still remains listening to the audio and typing up the notes.
I have learned to be conservative in my approach. e.g. A textual commentary or a chronologically-topical commentary or study don't need to be documented much because I can refer to them when I am investing texts in those specific areas so my notes are limited to more general comments outside the specific focus of the material. The problem still remains a lot of my material I am studying crams a lot of data worth referencing (and valuable for future study and reference) that is supplemental in nature.
I figure a number of you here are academics and have hit upon the same issues. Any insights and tips?
I am very tempted to begin reading at my PC and taking notes in a document by book and then sorting into proper categories when I am finished reading the book. My "problem" is I like reading around the wife & kids instead of my home-office and my current desk situation doesn't work well with my neck (I end up leaning over too much, which pinches a nerve in my neck which is very painful.) A sub notebook is out of the current budget so I may need to just compromise here and do the PC thing for now.
So if I go to the PC route documents may work (especially if I sync them on a USB drive/HDD) but I am curious if there is software that can further improve this process?
Or some practical tips, hints, and techniques others have found useful in cataloging large amounts of data cultivated from books and journals :smile:
Ps- I know there are a couple fellow Seminarians and Historians on the boards so I am interested in how they are dealing with this situation.
Pps- Now that I think of it, audio notes could work with a solid wav-to-text converter. But I would still need a solid method to storing my data (a tagging system on a document files would be great).
The long: I am working on my thesis and it has brought to the forefront a general issue I have struggled with for a while: documenting sources for future reference. While it may be practical to read (or reread) dozens of books for a larger project (like a thesis) more often than note either
(a) I may be thinking of a small snippet that adds insight to an issue but isn't directly related (i.e. is outside the bounds of the primary material); or
(b) I am writing something shorter and topical and may have in mind a wide variety of resources that focus on other issues but provide historical, grammatical, or literary data relevant for current project.
Some background: I do a lot of academic reading related to Biblical studies and the Ancient Near East with the dual purpose of homiletics and academic writing. Information gleaned from various resources can be roughly sorted in general categories spanning topical, grammatical, historical, and/or canonical.
This last weekend I was writing a paper for school and I had remembered a number of specific points I wanted to reference from a book and a couple journal articles I had read over 5 years ago. I spent 20 minutes sifting through the book for the specific data I wanted and took a bit longer to find the journal articles I specifically wanted to recall (and when I found them importantly brought to my attention some other relevant issues I would need to address, so referencing this entries was important).
I have pretty good recall but I am finding I am not only reading a lot of books with significant density but also my range of topics I must master/recall continues to expand. I love it... but I need to become more efficient!
I have tried various note taking methods with various success but I am not finding them suitable from here on out.
* Stickies. (+) They are very quick. (-) Some books may end up 2 or 3 stickies on every page. If I mark the sticky with a note about "what" topic is relevant the process becomes much slower--and importantly I then need to migrate my notes to some sort of document(s). If I don't I have to remember the book/author and specific point I want to remember which isn't always easy when you may have read many books on the specific topic. If I don't annotate the stickies I end up with a book with around a hundred stickies which is pointless.
* Marking the book. Similar issues as stickies but you lose the nice "tabs" for quick finding and still need to move the data digitally or have a perfect memory of topic and what book you read it in.
* Notepads. Horrible handwriting, laborus, still have to migrate the content, have to read in a place where I can use a notepad...
* Audio notes (my most recent method). (+) Very quick to record. (-) I still need to migrate the data to a digital format (typically (a) notes by book and then (b) sorting the notes topically and/or by relevant verse). I need to be more concise in my audio notes, but the issue still remains listening to the audio and typing up the notes.
I have learned to be conservative in my approach. e.g. A textual commentary or a chronologically-topical commentary or study don't need to be documented much because I can refer to them when I am investing texts in those specific areas so my notes are limited to more general comments outside the specific focus of the material. The problem still remains a lot of my material I am studying crams a lot of data worth referencing (and valuable for future study and reference) that is supplemental in nature.
I figure a number of you here are academics and have hit upon the same issues. Any insights and tips?
I am very tempted to begin reading at my PC and taking notes in a document by book and then sorting into proper categories when I am finished reading the book. My "problem" is I like reading around the wife & kids instead of my home-office and my current desk situation doesn't work well with my neck (I end up leaning over too much, which pinches a nerve in my neck which is very painful.) A sub notebook is out of the current budget so I may need to just compromise here and do the PC thing for now.
So if I go to the PC route documents may work (especially if I sync them on a USB drive/HDD) but I am curious if there is software that can further improve this process?
Or some practical tips, hints, and techniques others have found useful in cataloging large amounts of data cultivated from books and journals :smile:
Ps- I know there are a couple fellow Seminarians and Historians on the boards so I am interested in how they are dealing with this situation.
Pps- Now that I think of it, audio notes could work with a solid wav-to-text converter. But I would still need a solid method to storing my data (a tagging system on a document files would be great).
) so i wrote a program to catalog them
