I’ve spent the past week or so trying to identify
my past aversion to utilizing online resources as a means to organize my
research. Much like Dr. Lubke (prior to her transition) I’ve been living with
an unwieldy organizational system that includes ever rotating stacks of papers,
books, and manila file folders - I love a good manila folder – all marked and tagged
with various sticky notes. My office and my apartment are cluttered and I don’t
do well with clutter. I’m forced to keep transporting my research from place to
place to place. However, I’ve resisted. There have been small steps towards
using digital tools for reading and annotating. I have a Kindle, but so far its
main purpose has been to kill zombies and keep me entertained when I travel.
There is just something about interacting with the page that I find comforting.
The ability to have three articles open and a book in my lap while I write
seems authentic and true to the research process. However, change is an
essential component in remaining relevant so I will admit my recent experiments
with EverNote have been enlightening. I’ve uploaded my notes and PDFs for my
current project into this management program and am finding the tagging options
and search tool a life saver. It helps that I have two monitors where I keep
EverNote up on one and write on the other. While I don’t see myself going completely
paperless I do foresee a greater integration of technology into my process.
Now onto the discussion of citation management
tools which I’m really not sold on yet. When I was teaching I attempted to make
academic writing a key component of my curriculum – the good old history term
paper! My school preferred MLA so I taught MLA. (But, who uses MLA?) My insistence
on proper citations drove many a student crazy (undergrads included) and I
remember several discussions with them about the need to always review what a
citation manager produced. Besides having a stupid name KnightCite was notorious
for getting it wrong. My students’ reliance on this tool and belief in its accuracy
was frustrating. This might explain my own aversion. When both Dr. Lubke and
Dr. Vagara mentioned that their preferred citation managers didn’t always get
it right I felt a bit validated in this aversion. Besides I find the process of
creating references and a reference list somewhat soothing – strange I know.
But then again I also find ironing soothing so go figure.
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