If much of your study is electronic – e-books, PDF papers, worksheets and the like – you’ll face the same struggle I have: digital overwhelm. A clear workflow for dealing with mounds of virtual material is essential if you’re not to get lost.
I feel like I’ve tried them all, too. I’ve gone through the gamut of e-readers: GoodReader, PDF Expert, even trusty old Apple Preview (which has great annotation features). All very decent in their own way. On the file system side of things, though, it’s another story. I’ve cobbled together some sort of ‘folders on the Cloud’ system over the years, but it’s seriously creaky. I break my own rules half the time!
Bearing that in mind, I was chuffed to bits to chance upon a whole new system recently – one that’s passed me by completely. It seems to be a particularly big hit across North American universities. It also has a large, active community online, sharing performance tweaks. And best of all – it uses completely free software.
Zotero and Obsidian
Zotero is a publications manager that you simply drag your e-material into. The app retrieves bibliographical information, renames files sensibly and stores a copy online for working cross-device. Even better, it’s capable of generating full bibliographies, so is a file store, reader and referencing tool all in one.
Obsidian is the note-taking side of this – a sleek, markdown-driven text editor that is beautifully minimalistic. It excels in creating hyperlinked notes, allowing you to build your own Wiki-style knowledge bank. But it dovetails beautifully into Zotero thanks to community plugins that allow you to import your PDF annotations directly into bibliographically pigeon-holed notes.
After resisting the temptation to kick myself for not spotting it sooner, I did a deep-dive into Zotero + Obsidian workflow how-tos, and it’s an academic revelation. A couple of community content creators are real stand-outs here – so much so that it’s best I let them do the talking rather than waffle any more. I’m learning this as I go along, and these are great places to start.
Workflow Training
Here’s where I started, more by chance YouTube search than anything else. Girl in Blue Music namechecks a lot of the other big Z+O content creators here, so it’s a good jumping point for newcomers.
From there, it’s worth exploring morganeua‘s vast selection of content, including numerous how-to videos and worked examples.
Once you’ve worked through those, you can graduate to full geek mode! Bryan Jenks pushes the system well beyond anything else I’ve seen, and likewise has a huge back catalogue of training vids. He layers styling and advanced templating onto the base, making for a slick, colour-coded, optimally managed research system.
I feel very late indeed to this workflow party. But if you are too, join the club – and let me know if you’ve found this useful too!