I completely amaze myself with my ability to stumble over the obvious. Here's the issue (actually this just scratches the surface) - I want to do a better job with sources. I know. Big news. I'm sure I'm the only one.
Here's my work flow.
- Gather piles of stuff and put them near my work space. Stuff is defined as the photographs, news clippings, letters or documents filling the boxes filling my house.
- Scan something and put it in a basket (or pile) to be filed or thrown away. Put the digital file in a folder to be processed (meta data, links to specific individuals, added to database, blog fodder, etc).
- Repeat until bored then start working on a digital file.
- Something about a file prompts a blog idea. I start the post, forget the meta data, links or database and wander about my mental and digital files looking for information to complete the post.
- Look at post, realize I have no source listed and struggle to construct something that might pass for a citation if one had spent decades on a desert island talking to a volleyball.
- Give up and go back to scanning or playing with the digitized files.
And here's my revelation.
Use my Legacy software to record the source when I'm writing the blog post.Mind blowing, isn't it? It takes about a minute, gets the digitized record/photo/whatever into my database in at least one relevant spot AND I get a citation I can copy and paste into the blog.
Is it a perfect system? Well, no. I don't get the source added to all relevant events/people in the database. The odds of my maintaining it are slim. But it's far better than what I've been doing (nothing). Maybe I'll be disciplined enough to continue.
Any comments reflecting on my obvious scatterbrainedness, ADD or calling me a geneaditz will be met with a DUH! Family need not comment at all.
