Information
management methods / systems
As mentioned earlier, it is easy to focus on the 'physical' aspects of managing your information. Where will you put that pile of photocopies, how will you store them? The 'location' of materials varies, according to your surrounds and circumstances. Where are you currently storing the information you have collected?
- filing cabinets
- ring-binders
- boxes
- piles on the floor, desk etc
- bookmarks (for web documents)
The following academics describe how they physically manage their data and information. Click on the icons to listen to the audio files or view the transcript.
Mike Danaher (Lecturer in Japanese Language studies)
The more complex question is 'what system will I use to be able to 'retrieve' those photocopies, once I have stored them. Try looking back at your "hooks" - will they help you to create some filing or retrieval system??
Have you used any of the following filing systems?
- alphabetic by author
- by topic or project area
- alphabetic within topic or subject area
- by stage of research - introduction, methodology, data collection …
- currency, or date retrieved
- by running number
- by unique code number
- random chaos
Whatever you do, make sure that you are consistent within your 'system', and that you link your 'physical files' with your information management system eg. include the relevant code number in your database record or card files.
Let's have a look in detail at some of the advantages and disadvantages of the different 'information management retrieval systems' that are commonly used.
- Manual card files
- Computerised files or databases
- Bibliographic formatting software / Personal reference database programs
