Each text format requires

its own method for processing. This is not a one size fits all approach, it’s more of a many sizes fit all – being able to have some fields that comprehensively link throughout the text resources – such as keywords. I’m hoping this database will replace the Zotero library and the email library. Okay. I can get started on this. Really, I always seem to need to start any new effort with some form of developmental housekeeping. It makes the task more approachable.

I’m thinking of building a database…

to serve the management problem. Part of my purpose is to develop a paperless research methodology. I just don’t want to use up precious resources if I don’t have to. It is harder to read documents and process the texts within the computer. But, with the new pdf formats making it possible to select text out of the document, I think, if I used a system of text selection for quotes, and then a separate field for my response, annotation, or summary, that might create a powerful cognitive process for getting the most for my time spent on the work. The database is not the bibliographic reference software, that is a separate entity specifically used for citation management. No. This is a cognitive processing application, that will allow me to track the documents I have read, and from there, begin to formulate my own arguments and positions. One thing I want to track is what kind of paper/book I have read. I think the fields will emerge through the process. I can add as many as I like. Yup. I’m going to set up the database now.

Designing a research process

It has been a busy month, and I am ready to jump into the next phase of my development as a scholar. I have begun the process of looking at current research in my field, to understand the arguments, the kinds of papers, the journals, pertinent to my field of study. I do not have a bullet proof method for processing the texts, although I keep working on developing such a thing. I was using email as a searchable text system, posting my comments on readings with the pdf attached. The problem with this system is that I have no way of compiling searches by keyword, other than as a group of emails. I’m concerned that this is going to become unwieldy as the volume of data increases. Clearly my method from my MA thesis was inadequate. I now have these milk crates of pdf files that I don’t know what to do with. Apparently I have a cognitive quirk that makes it so I can find anything if it is in a pile, I have a very difficult time managing files in file drawers. There is this sensation of things disappearing, similar to the navigational dyslexia I experience finding my way through the world.