paper notes in a digital world

Saving Stuff

Most of us who love paper and keep and store our journals, our family letters, etc. eventually  must ask ourselves how we are going to preserve all of the material in a way that  keeps it all safe from deterioration. There's a lot more to it than, "just look for acid-free." Just ask Don Williams. Williams is a Senior Conservator at the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Materials Research and Education (SCMRE) and the co-author of Saving Stuff: How to Care for and Preserve Your Collectibles, Heirlooms, and Other Prized Possessions.

While the book covers a little of everything from furniture heirlooms to baseball card collections, there is a lot of good information on the preservation of paper items. The resource section in the back of the book alone is worth the price of the book.

Real Simple magazine had a nice article that looked at some of the tips offered in the book.

This book is for people who feel that simply having a digital copy of something just won't cut it. We feel the digital copy is nice, but to preserve the original piece of paper is a trust that was placed in our hands. This book will help us do that so that all of the "stuff" survives for future generations to enjoy.

There are two excellent audio interviews - both from public radio - that are worth a listen if preservation is of interest to you......I found it very interesting listening and a great compliment to the book.

Minnesota Public Radio spends the better part of an hour talking to Don Williams and co-author Louisa Jaggar. The streaming RealAudio version is here.

Kitty Felde's Talk Of The City program on KPCC in Pasadena, California aired a conversation with the authors that runs about fifteen minutes. It can be heard in RealAudio here.

The official SAVING STUFF website.
 

Golden Section Notes

While our primary focus here at PNDW is on all things paper, we are participating in a digital world with a lot of information to organize. While I still use a Moleskine notebook and the Moleskine planner to stay on track, I use a nifty program called Golden Section Notes (Or, GS Notes) to organize digital bits of information.  GS Notes is what is known as an "outliner" program, basically a digital note keeper/organizer. When you need to copy and paste that book information for later reference, keep track of your NetFlix rentals, password-protect pages of links, etc. these programs are perfect. They are very nice for all the tidbits of digital information and allow for easy organization.

There are also a lot of them.

I was an ECCO user for a long time.... and then Treepad, then Keynote, and then TexNotes, and then fill-in-the-blank (I tried a bunch), and then I discovered GS Notes. It has become an easy favorite and I find it the perfect bridge between simplicity and handy features. Many of these programs, notably TexNotes of late, have tried to become a little of everything and have become too cumbersome, with comparisons to a sort of mini wannabe Microsoft OneNote.  GS Notes hits the perfect "note" for me. 

Jeremy Wagstaff over at one of my favorites, Loose Wire, has given thought to outliners, and has kept an updated "Directory Of Outliners." Wikipedia also has an entry with a nice listing of these applications. Whichever one you might choose to keep track of all the digital clutter - many find them a must-have application.