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Every historian over fifty was trained to take notes on index cards. In recent years as historians have done more and more work online many historians have begun using digital services like Zotero to order information they've collected about the subjects they're researching. Others take notes on their computers using programs like WORD.
We were curious to find out if historians are still using note cards. PLEASE RELATE YOUR PRACTICE IN COMMENTS MADE BELOW.
I often use index cards, but if I don't have any, I use small pads where I am limited as to how much info I can put on each piece of paper. I would probably use the computer if my typing were better or if I knew how to use note taking software. I am looking to get a pen scanner to help eliviate my problem of not being able to read my own handwriting
Rebecca Spang -
6/26/2009
I never used note cards. I did use to take notes long hand and I DO think there was something about the physical process of transcribing information that helped make it more memorable. But carrying paper around becomes tedious and everything has been on my laptop in text files for the past 15 years or so. A few months ago in Perspectives, Judy Walkowitz wrote of printing her notes and putting them in binders--I found that curious, as it seemed to make more work rather than less. Who has time for that?!
L. Civitello -
6/24/2009
No note cards. Just input info directly into its own document or outline or file in WordPerfect. Word is a misery, a straitjacket, and feeble besides.
Paul E Hoffman -
6/23/2009
My preferred note form is a 4x6 slip of paper. They are easy to sort. Am using e-notes with WordPerfect 5.0 (!)on one long-term project. Word search is easy, but organizing the notes for writing is more difficult than with paper slips and paper clips. Also e-notes tend, in my use, to be far too long, with too many subjects. A fault in my method.
Steven F. Lawson -
6/22/2009
Note cards and shoe boxes to store them in; they worked when I started out in the early sixties and now that I am retiring I see no need to change. I now think of note card shuffling as the himan computer method.
Judith Anthony -
6/22/2009
You've GOT to be kidding! I am probably your oldest reader (having received an M.A. in history when I was in my fifties) and I barely remember the note card mandate from an assignment in high school (all of which I dutifully typed because I couldn't read my writing even in those days). With the magic (and you have to be old to use that word because that is what the computer age is to those of us from the typewriter generation) of computers and search engines life became very beautiful. I think my answer is still: You've got to be kidding. Even I don't know anyone who uses note cards in their research.
Nigel Anthony Sellars -
6/22/2009
I still use index cards in some me research, especially where the use of laptops is restricted. I've actually been doing a substantial research for one book on-line--especially archival newspapers--so I save much of the material as text, then edited and reference it as I would with index cards. As archives increasingly permit researchers to use laptops and small scanners--as the National Archives does--I'll probably change over completely. Not sure what I'll do with the hundreds of old note cards I still have lying around, though.
Bill -
6/22/2009
I write important things backwards on my forehead so I can remember them when I look in the mirror. It's the same reason "ambulance" is spelled backwards on the front of them so that you can see what it is in your rear-view mirror, as if the vehicle itself was not evident. I do find it hard to write backwards and I use my left hand (I am right-handed) to challenge my brain and stave off dementia. It may be too late...or the ink might not be helping, either.
Thomas Hamm -
6/22/2009
Yes, I still take notes on index cards. The system works for me, and I am not confident enough of my computer skills to trust an electronic version. I still find myself, from time to time, referring back to the 4 x 6 cards I used when I was writing my dissertation in 1983-85, still very accessible. Would the same be true if I had them only on those huge floppies from the 1980s?
Rick Perlstein -
6/22/2009
Never used one.
Jeremy Young -
6/22/2009
I was trained to use note cards in high school -- and have never used them since. If I had to write out notes by hand, instead of typing them, I'd never take any at all.
Greg Dehler -
6/21/2009
I saw on C-Span In Depth that Taylor Branch puts all his notes into MS Access. Basically, he creates a record for each note and then the notes are tagged and can be sorted according to the tags. After years of using index cards (which I feel is becoming increasingly unwieldly and hard to maintain with limited physical space) I think I will try using the Access method of note taking. Does anyone else use Access for notes?
Thomas Mackie -
6/20/2009
I never used notecards even when they were normal. If an instructor insisted, I made them up from my notes from my three-ring binder. Notecards were always a bad idea.
Scott William Bayley -
6/20/2009
I use index cards. I thought I was being innovative! I have in the neighbourhood of 5000 on Canadian History and the English Civil War.
Bruce Bumbalough -
6/19/2009
No
Greg Rowe -
6/19/2009
I do not use index cards. While I have not used Zotero, I have used citation generators within databases I have searched for material.
Ruel J. Eskelsen -
6/19/2009
I switched from paper note taking to Zotero when I began the MA in History program at George Mason this year.
It is a great tool with its ability to grab the item metadata in one click and then have a searchable notes utility for tracking down details when one may have forgotten in which source a particular remembered fact or quote was referenced.
I do keep my old note card file with me when I am researching in a library away from home base, just in case computer problems crop up, so I have a low tech backup plan in addition to Zotero backups.
John R. M. Wilson -
6/19/2009
Yes, I still use note cards for big projects. Students tend to photocopy material instead, leading to plagiarism, even if inadvertent. When I got started, photocopying was a luxury, so I learned to make notes on the spot rather than copying material in archives, at least most of the time. It still works.
Pam Brunfelt -
6/19/2009
Yes, I still use 5 x 8 notecards with a twist. I use my Mac to type the information I need and then print them out on 5 x 8 paper. I also use data bases when appropriate but print out the files in a 5 x 8 format. I prefer to organize my notes by topic (my archival training) and then hand sort them as I'm working.
I don't like scrolling or using find tools to locate items. I also don't like reading on computer for very long although I use it to write. So using a modern tool to generate my old fashioned notecards works perfectly for me. I am a half reformed Luddite.
Thomas R. Cox -
6/19/2009
Still use note cards--plus WORD.
Caroline Hill -
6/19/2009
I will add that like others here I need something printed and readily able to be shuffled from one pile to another. 8x11 pages now serve for me the purpose that 4x6 note cards did for my dissertation.
Caroline Hill -
6/19/2009
I moved from 4x6 note cards (typed) to 4x6 cards (on computer) to regular paper, 3 hole punch, and MS Word. The ability to cut and paste and duplicate notes that might fall into different categories and also to do searches of my files (usually defined by the collection from which I am taking notes) is very welcome.
I tried filemaker and disliked it. very clunky and unhelpful.
Jaime Partsch -
6/19/2009
I have tried on several occasions to discard the use of note cards and use only electronic means to keep a record of reading notes. It just hasn't worked out for me. I don't know if my brain is not wired for this or if it's just the fact that I'm over fifty. But then again, even with note cards, my organizational skills are minimal. Despite all this, I've been able to publish a couple of books. I'll keep trying the digital means but meanwhile, I still actually enjoy the use of the notecards.
Newton Key -
6/18/2009
No cards anymore when doing research (indeed, anyone doing research overseas and at multiple archives would rarely use cards even before computers because they were too heavy). But paper, even paper slips like cards, when writing as outline section numbers/letters can be written on the paper to insert/use relevant stuff in relevant places (then cut-and-paste-and-amend while writing) because outline numbers for one paper have little business in archive or book arranged notes.
Janice Liedl -
6/18/2009
We were taught how to work from index cards when I was an undergraduate in the early eighties. I always found that an inelegant solution. I used legal notepads when I was in grad school (and still do for archives that are computer-wary).
I don't think I'm missing anything by not sticking with index cards. I have folders on my computer that collect data for each project. I have Refworks and Zotero to keep the bibliographic data straight and I back up active files weekly (critical and current files are backed up on two separate systems). Searching software makes it easy to find references. Easier than index cards or notepads, that's for sure!
Bob Sampson -
6/18/2009
I should have mentioned that I type them in word into a note card size format by moving the left margin in. Then I print them out on regular-sized paper and cut off the margin. Usually get two notes per page. This is probably not as easy as a note-taking system but, for me, it allows the best of both worlds--the organizational capabilities of the old-style notecards but without the writing out by hand.
Bob Sampson -
6/18/2009
No, I stopped using cards years ago. I use a laptop computer and type the notes into it.
Tanya Roth -
6/18/2009
I should clarify: I don't use Zotero for online sources. I use Zotero to organize and annotate all my archival sources: at the archive, I photograph documents, then put them in files and create PDF files for each document (IE, 1 pdf for a 10-page document, rather than looking at each individual jpeg). Then I review the PDFs and make entries for them in Zotero, where I also tag them and annotate them.
The beautiful thing about tags is that it's very easy for me to find all 100 sources on, say, race relations with the click of a button (rather than sorting through all of my PDFs).
Tanya Roth -
6/18/2009
30-year old grad student. Never use note cards; Zotero holds all my dissertation notes.
Tim Lacy -
6/18/2009
I use index cards, Zotero, Word files, and legal pads. In sum, I use whatever paper or electronic means are handy to do what I need. I use index cards when I'm reading on the bus, plane, or train. It's just easier. But if I'm at a desk with a computer, well, it's the desktop/laptop. But if I'm in a coffee shop and note cards are not handy, I use legal pads. The key is to be organized. The means matter less so long as you know where the information is. I concede that I do sometimes transfer index cards to either computer files or Zotero. - TL
Brian M -
6/18/2009
I find FileMaker Pro a pretty good way of doing index card research, but without the cards.
Knitting Clio -
6/17/2009
I stopped using note cards in the early 1990s too and haven't gone back to them. I have tried Zotero but find it cumbersome. I use Del.icio.us to keep track of online materials.
HNN -
6/17/2009
Rick Shenkman, Editor of HNN:
In the early 1990s I stopped using index cards. It seemed to make more sense to take notes on a laptop using WORD. For years I took notes this way, whether I was researching a topic for a book, an article or a lecture.
Three years ago I went back to note cards.
Why? I found that there was no good way to organize my electronic notes. I missed the creative and tactile feel of a note card system. In assembling note cards at the end of a project, plopping down a card in one pile and then moving it to another as I made my way through my large stack of notes, I discovered that I was more in control of my research materials and more likely to reach creative epiphanies.
One other factor motivated me to make the switch back to note cards. As I have gotten older my memory has weakened. By rereading my note cards I found it easier to remember basic facts. In effect, they became flash cards.
What about all the digital services like Zotero? I found that they are very helpful in collecting disparate online materials. But at the end of a project I would be confronted with a bewildering array of pages and folders. At its best Zotero helped me create a library of materials from which I could draw on later. But because google is so useful at finding online materials I increasingly found that I didn't need to tag online information and copy it. When I wanted to find a fact or quote I had come across in my research (and taken a note card on it) I simply googled a phrase and up it popped. That was easier than rummaging through my old Zotero files.
