Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Juliana's Top 5 Organizational Problems

Juliana Smith's 24/7 Family History Circle blog always has great articles. I especially like one of her latest - My Top Five Organizational Problems.

As you can read from the comments, her list described what many researchers are experiencing in organizing their research. Her top 5 problems were:

1.) Cut Back the Forest of Family Trees - use only one program to input research data

2.) Note Stages of Processing - analyze new data, enter it into the database, file it where you can find it, etc.

3.) Saving Files and E-mails - have an effective digital file system, feed it and keep it healthy.

4.) Date Everything - where and when did you find it,

5) Letting It Go - what to do with stuff you don't need.

Like most researchers, I have my own infallible filing system - I'm able to find bits of information within several hours of wondering where it is. I'm constantly tinkering with my digital files. My paper files are in notebooks by surname and locality group, except for the 10 inch stack of unfiled papers. Then there is the 20 inch stack of probate records, land records and military records that are not completely entered into the databases and won't fit into my full notebooks. Correspondence? Yeah, right. Like Topsy, it all grew!

I doubt that I could work full time for a year and get all of my papers in a logical and consistent file system.

Read Juliana's article and tell me what you think.

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