137 - Brief Mapping of Core Note Taking Functions
For most of time the tools have been centered around the core four note functions involved in referencing: storage, sorting, selecting, summarizing (Blair 2010, pg 15). Lets take a look at it from a paper and digital viewpoint, starting with a paper reference book.
-
You start by storing the information on paper of various sizes and qualities.
-
You then create pointers to the different sections of information so that you can easily find them again. Two common ways of sorting the pointers are thematic and alphabetical.
-
The reader would then select the information they want to reference using the sorted pointers. If you wanted to search for the information thematically, you’d use a table of contents. Alphabetically, you’d use an index.
-
Because the information out there is too big for one book, the authors of reference books would include summaries of other information collections (other books).
The digital version of this would be Wikis such as Wikipedia or SuperMemoGuru.
- You store the information on a latticework of webpages, with each page explaining an idea or concept.
- The information is sorted through unique page names, which in turn can be searched, removing the need for advanced sorting techniques. On both mentioned websites, pages are often sorted thematically for easier comprehension with the use of hubs or table of contents.
- To select the information you can either use links or a universal search.
- Wikipedia implements summarizing through the creation of page introductions/overviews at the top of each page.