Despite the time involved I've found that entering papers, etc. into a
bibliography data base works very, very well for organization. The program
I use is Endnote Plus. You friend arranges everything alphabetically. I
find it much easier to simply shove papers in hanging folders in a file
drawer in the order that I get them. Then I write a "call number" on each
article, listing first the folder it is in, and then what article it is in
that folder. Thus the tenth article in folder 255 would be 255-10. I enter
this call number in a field in the bib program. I just fill up folders in
the order that things come, without any concern for putting similar content
together. All of the organization is done by the Bib program (e.g. enter
keywords like "Activity Theory" and then simply pull out all the references
with that keyword -- the articles may be scattered through several folders
but that really doesn't matter). When each folder starts looking full I
start a new one.
A further thought. The idea of getting everything you already have in order
is daunting. You might just put that on hold (or even forget it) and just
start entering new papers, etc as they come in, and only enter older ones
when you actually use them again.
Needless to say another advantage of a bib program is that you never have
to enter a citation more than once. Endnote allows you to add markers as
you write a paper and then uses them to compile the bibliography for you.
It can do this as many times as you like so that adding and deleting
references is no hassel. It will also format them in whatever bibliography
style (APA, American Anthropologist, etc,) you, and it's a snap to change
the whole bibliography for a paper from one style to another.
I've also found simple address book programs (I use Dynodex) excellent
tools for organizing things. I keep my videotape and audiotape logs, data
citations etc. on Dynodex, It's a lot easier to use than a full fledged,
general purpose data base, and has easy, flexible ways of grouping things
with its keywords (e.g. I can almost instantly call up all of tapes with a
particular keyword).
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Chuck Goodwin
Anthropology
University of South Carolina
Columbia SC 29208
(803) 356-6006
(803) 777-0259 (fax)