At a time when we are encouraged to read, read, read, I wonder what the best strategies are to keep track of information. I am using Mandeley, a citation software that does a pretty good job of keeping track of my journal articles books and other online resources but I hardly think at all about keeping track of the few non-digital resources I have. They simply sit on a shelf while I try to find an online version of them to reference. During this busy time I have to find easier ways to access and organize, but more importantly, read and absorb all of this content. And how do I determine if the read will be worth it? Reading book reviews is one way to let other scholars lend a hand to help select a resource worth reading. For example in a review on Borgman’s Scholarship in the Digital Age: Information, Infrastructure, and the Internet, Spiro says that “Borgman explores the possibilities for scholarly communication in a digital environment, such as the development of automatic methods of information extraction to make it easier for scholars to process information quickly” (Spiro, 2009). This information is very appealing to me since I have just been seeking out ways to organize my readings in a way to read and absorb content faster. Sometimes a helpful book review can make your research journey a little easier. Next read is Borgman.
References
Spiro, L. (2009). Scholarship in the Digital Age: Information, Infrastructure, and the Internet. * Christine L. Borgman. Literary and Linguistic Computing, 24(2), 243–245. http://doi.org/10.1093/llc/fqn041