Author Topic: Keeping track of books/sources?  (Read 2043 times)

Keeping track of books/sources?
« on: 09 June, 2008, 09:40:21 pm »

Anybody know what academics, researchers, journalists, et. al. use to keep track of books and other sources they need to find or use? I can't walk around with a big stack of index cards like I did in college, but I often end up finding references to books, etc., that I want to keep track of, or ideas (other peoples') that I want to look into. I don't much like writing in my books, and obviously wouldn't in library books. But a bunch of notes in various places doesn't work--I just lose things.
scottclark.photoshelter.com

Re: Keeping track of books/sources?
« Reply #1 on: 10 June, 2008, 11:09:06 am »
You can use software like Endnote that you can enter references into to use when writing later on. I suppose you could enter interesting stuff into here to to look upin the future. Of course this relies on you updating it regularly.

I thought everyone just had a big old pile of papers and books all over...

Re: Keeping track of books/sources?
« Reply #2 on: 10 June, 2008, 11:10:12 am »
Reference Manager was the standard software at my institution when I was an apprentice academic.
Profit or planet?

Re: Keeping track of books/sources?
« Reply #3 on: 10 June, 2008, 11:13:05 am »
I always carry a small Moleskine notebook and just jot things down in that.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

Re: Keeping track of books/sources?
« Reply #4 on: 10 June, 2008, 11:16:20 am »
I always carry a small Moleskine notebook and just jot things down in on that.

You fiend!

Re: Keeping track of books/sources?
« Reply #5 on: 10 June, 2008, 07:43:26 pm »
If you use Firfox then "Zotero" is free!

http://www.zotero.org/


Re: Keeping track of books/sources?
« Reply #6 on: 10 June, 2008, 10:22:08 pm »

Thanks, everybody. I'm realizing that any high-tech solution would mean buying a laptop or PDA, since I'm rarely near a computer when I'm reading etc. So for now I may have to remain analog, unless there's some cool on-paper system I'm missing.

I thought everyone just had a big old pile of papers and books all over...

So far, this is exactly what I'm doing, except that I wish it was only "a" pile....
scottclark.photoshelter.com