Sometimes I lie in bed and wonder how unbearable life might become if index cards were not available. When considering which books I’d want on the tired desert isle, I must confess that without index cards I might just give up reading. The index card makes the best sort of bookmark, being slim and sturdy, and possessing the exact amount of white space necessary for brief notes. Afterwards, they are easily stored and categorized. Much better than big pieces of paper floating around the house.
I cannot discover who invented the index card. I suspect it was the wife of a paper-maker. I imagine lots of waste paper lying around the shop and the wife pointing out to her husband that much of it could be salvaged for practical use and sale if it were cut into three by five segments. He got the credit and the profits, of course, but I like thinking he never forgot his wife’s genius and so provided her with an impressive tombstone upon her death, one that immortalized her devotion to him, but conveniently left out specifically mentioning the index card.
I feel the same way about The Sticky Note.
Posted by: Caleb at April 1, 2005 05:22 PMThe Sticky or Post-It Note is very handy when I'm too lazy to write or don't have a pen handy. I can end up applying dozens to a book so that by the end it reminds me of baseball cards clipped to bicycle wheel spokes. Or a kind of Africa stabbed with flags, a continent of ideas.
Posted by: Bobby Farouk at April 2, 2005 02:12 AMI prefer the check mark method. I put check marks next to a passage I might want to look at again, the number of marks indicating how important I think it is. Then on each page with a check mark I put a tiny dot on the upper corner of the page. Makes it easy to find things. I find I rarely need to make actual notes with this method; usually finding the passage is enough.
Posted by: Alan Hogue at April 3, 2005 12:59 PMOn my last big project I covered a couple of books with Post-It flags. The effect was more overwhelming than useful, and a pain in the neck when working away from home. On the last book I tried turning down corners but that wasn't precise enough. So I'm back to vertical lines alongside things I want to remember. Dots are an idea though. Thanks.
I find Post-Its more useful for practicing law on the hoof. I keep a quarter of a pad of three-by-threes in the back of my calendar book. They're useful for leaving messages and for handing out phone numbers and brief advice.
I like the "continent of ideas" image, because usually the Post-It Note serves as a marker of something to which I will return and explore further.
When a library book that has been thoroughly flagged is recalled, however, and I have to prune the book of Post-Its, I sometimes wish I had just taken notes and tried to figure things out on my first landing. Maybe some explorers have wished the same.
Posted by: Caleb at April 4, 2005 02:27 PM