rather random question...

[ratcreature]

...but I figure with this many academics and authors in fandom this is a good place to ask: I've been wondering what kind of software people use to keep track of quotes and other interesting bits of knowledge they accumulate and want to keep track of

Comments

[brown_betty]

A book where you write down cool stuff you read/heard etc. is called a "commonplace book," but this is a bit archaic and not widely used.

[ratcreature]

Well, even the analog Zettelbox is of course a bit different from a notebook that just lets you organize things in time, because you can slip in cards according to the system in which you have your box organized and the connections you make between cards. Luhmann's was apparently famous for some sort of system he used, and anyway this is obviously amplified once you make it searchable and interconnected with personal tags like a bookmark site only or your reference/quote collection rather than webpages.

I mean, I have notebooks and such, but I find that I don't reuse them much, because it's not like it's easy to find "that cool feminist statement that I read somewhere, and I think it had to do with Paris" which is how I usually vaguely remember quotes I found noteworthy, which is why I mostly have given up on them. And text files on a computer are at least searchable, so but you are still frelled if neither "Paris" nor"feminist" are actually words in that quote that you somehow associate with both.

[chicago_h]

I use EndNote, which is what I think most people I know use, although I find I'm inclined to be more old-fashioned and keep stitch-bound notebooks with quotes and information. But EndNote links up to tons of libraries and data-bases, so I can download references direct from, say, the US Library of Congress. I'm not savvy enough to know if EndNote has a Linux version, but I know it's a pretty popular bibliographic software here in the US.

[ratcreature]

I looked it up and it's commercial (and I don't really want to buy anything for my amateurish needs) and also only available for Windows and Mac. :/

[seikaitsukimizu]

I have one big Quotes file that I'm slowly dividing into specific quotes (by shows, but books, graphic novels, famous people, etc). So if I want something specific, I can just open the topic file.

Unfortunately, I still have to read through pages and pages to find the specific quote I want.

[ratcreature]

Yeah, I have something like that, but I can't help but think that there must be software somwhere making this easier considering how many people need something like this privately and professionally for research and fun. I mean that's what one of the things computers are for, no? Help us organize our knowledge?