The eighth thing that sabbatical has given me thusfar, and for which I am grateful, is:
Organizing Time: so that I can have fewer physical objects weighing me down, I am digitizing files.
I’ve collected photocopies of articles and books over the years, because that was the only or the most effective way to have a copy of them,1 that is, in the times before personal computers came with gigabytes of memory. I’ll never know how many pounds/kilograms of paper I’ve sent over the seas via media mail to myself. Boxes and boxes. Now it’s time to shed the weight.
Naturally there’s a system to the madness.2 Firstly, I (re-)read the contents of a physical file and record my impressions and thoughts about the contents on an index card. (Sometimes I’m lucky and my past self has already done this step, as in the example below.) Secondly, I scan the physical file’s contents3 and I record on the index card the name of the digital file where the scan can be found and/or where my full notes can be found. Finally, I record the author’s name and maybe part of the title on the appropriate “topics” card(s). This can take anywhere from half-an-hour to five hours, depending on the file and whether I’ve read it before.
I’ve mentioned this seriously old-school index card system before. It loosely resembles a library’s formerly glorious card catalog system but without a decimal system.
Need an example? Here’s one, front and back so you don’t miss out on anything.
I find this particular index card fascinating (and whether or not you do is up to you) because it is one of the few ones that is typed. Printed, actually. It was created in the days when I had the perfect dinky printer whose feeder I could manipulate so that I could print on any size paper my heart desired. I miss those old dinky printers. I was self-delusional then in that I believed I could create a Word-doc version of every biblio card I had and would have, but today I live with my almost exclusively handwritten index cards in peace and harmony.
I will not show you the topics cards.4 But here's a grand photo of the two metal boxes of index cards which currently reside with me.
So many people understandably use software5 to organize their “index cards,” but I will never. Sure, software can be helpful for the ephemeral parts of a project, such as, say, the actual writing, but I’ll never have to pay someone to access my index cards, and my nieces and nephews will have something to inherit. A computer and a back-up drive will be all I need to store the actual files, but those will stay in my paws. This is my equivalent to Linus’s security blanket. And using this system has yielded amity with surprising individuals. Dr. James Kettner and I had no reason to talk before I saw him in his office scribbling on an index card. I don’t know how I got up the nerve to compliment him on it, but I’m glad I did. He was beyond kind and thoughtful.
Paper, real, individual, and human/humane — index cards are the system for me.
Not entirely true: I once transcribed an article while sitting in a library in Prague. And of course primary sources don’t leave the archives.
Partially inspired by
with her substack, I am writing about my index card system. Any and all boredom that my substack generates is my responsibility and mine alone, however.Did you know you can use your phone to scan documents? Sometimes it works well enough to possibly save you time.
I won’t show them because I still believe in some privacy and I believe in not inculpating oneself. Who knows? The topics cards may exculpate me in some respects.
Scrivener and Evernote jump to my mind, but only because I use them. Here someone has listed a bunch of research tools: https://www.octoparse.com/blog/30-tools-resources-for-research.
Before anything else, thank you, Jenny, for taking the time to respond. I put these posts out there with the thought, "maybe one person will find something interesting in this." I'm glad someone's out there.
Your first question is the easiest. Four more index cards come after Zeleny: R. Zelnik, J. Zeman, Z. Zeman, and B. Zilynskyj. (And maybe there will be more by the end of the year as I go through files.)
You're right, the .jpeg and .pdf files that result from using one's phone to digitize doesn't make the words in the files searchable as far as I can manage, but .doc files are searchable with the "good old windows search." :) Thank you for the Prezi idea, because I hadn't thought of using it that way, and I'll play around with it. And you're also right to day that I'm not about to give up the note cards, for more than one reason. One is, we know technology comes and goes and digitally formatted items can become "locked," that is, inaccessibly trapped in software or other technology. My note cards could go up in smoke or the ink could fade (though I try to use archival ink!), but software changes so much that I'm not willing to invest the time it would take to covert all the information in the note cards a digital system. Another is, some stuff is not available online, so hyperlinks, etc., don't apply. A final one for today is, (and your response sparked some questions for me, so thank you) wondering how memory works. When everything is digitally searchable, what is a person forced to commit to memory? I can't memorize all my note cards, but I like the experience of sitting with a source for a while and then reflecting on what I got out of it. And I like going through the note cards when I'm thinking about a project and stumbling across an author I'd forgotten about (and then I get to read my reflections on reading it earlier). When I need to search for something, I go to a library's database to get a good start, so I don't feel I need my own database. Maybe I'm showing my age here, and this is probably the result of my own quirkiness and suspicions / prejudices against the digital age's effects on how we use our brains, which I will undoubtedly assert more forcefully as I get older. :)
The topics cards are messy and ad hoc. As topics or projects occur to me, I start one. A big heading such as "Popular Religion" at the top with authors' names listed haphazardly below. Nothing fancy. But yeah, they're on the same large-size index cards.
Bless you for asking about Hannah and Rosie! And for noticing the cute hen butts! I got a little stuck there, but I think I know what to cover next -- and I know the ending, but I don't know how they get there yet. You've inspired me to work on it. Do you have any philosophies you think they should talk about?
I took a peek at your profile and all it says is that you teach evening classes. What do you teach?
-Jeanne
A few questions for you Dr. Grant. Was Zeleny, Rostislav the final author in your index card list? You have a nice collection of index cards there btw..
I recently found that using the notes app on the iPhone will allow you to copy documents fairly easily, but it's not searchable. What have you found that allows you to build a searchable document, or a way of being able to search a group of documents for a specific keyword? If you wanted to find all documents related to "veniam docendi" would you be able to do so without note cards? Would the good old windows search function for your .Doc files work for that? Could you create a Prezi with all of your documents with the hyperlinks and cross references? Not asking you to abandon your note cards.
I understand not wanting to share your topics cards, could you generate one as an example and post it, or would it be in more or less the same format of the one you posted?
Final question for the evening.. when will Hannah and Rosie be returning? You left everyone on a bit of a cliffhanger and you make cute hen butts.