...the ease of digital access could make us dumber--or not.

I Wrote Them Down in My Diary

I think of this line from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade often.  Unlike the elephant, I forget.  My iguana mate teasingly calls me his "little goldfish," playing off that animal's 3-second memory span.  I am the worst at remembering the title and author of a book I just read.  The ability to quickly Google that information, however, allows my seeming incompetence to quickly be reversed.  I've become very good at looking up information because of this.

...try this new archival tool.

(The History Iguana has a confession.  She doesn't really pay much attention to the Grad Life emails.  It's mostly because she lives down on the beach, so going to the events is usually inconvenient.  However, HI does believe that the best way to learn is to do.)

An upcoming workshop is on the archival tool Zotero.  What is that?  It's an interface that helps you organize your digital files for research, brought to us from our friends at George Mason...  The same friends who have given us Omeka.

Since I won't be going to the workshop, I decided to try playing with it here at home.  I downloaded the standalone version, since the Firefox one didn't work for me.  It's surprisingly easy.

 

All you have to do is add an item, type in all the gooey information, link to a file, and VOILA! You can also organize your items by collection (sound familiar?).  

I decided to give this a go after attempting to organize my thesis research.

...she has never heard of this archive. Why is that?

I moved to Charlotte exactly six years ago today.  For those of you who have just moved here, you'll learn the first question asked of you is, "Where are you from?"  When I would reply, "Louisiana," the next question would be, "Are you here because of the hurricane?"