Keeping Found Things Found: Organizing Information For

Retrieval Laura Larsson

Cedar CollaborationNovember 6, 2004

The best journeys are the ones that answer questions that at the outset you never

even thought to ask.Rick Ridgeway

Learning Objectives

• Describe several strategies for retrieving found information when needed

• Now that I have it, how do I find it again?• To keep or not to keep? • Cost of finding and not finding information• Retrieving specific types of information• Retrieving Information and Getting Things Done

(GTD)

Now That I Have it, How Do I Find It Again?

• What good is information you’ve found if you can’t retrieve it again?

• We’ll talk about specific methods of information retrieval in a bit

To Keep or Not to Keep

• Keeping too much information is costly• Not keeping something valuable is costly• Costs of wrong or incomplete information

can be high, too

Cost of Finding/Not Finding Information

• Not finding critical information can hurt your project (and your career)

• Time spent (re)searching for information– Billions of Web pages– Often hundreds of thousands of hits when you do a search– Sifting through the retrieved information can be time

consuming and frustrating– Knowledge workers spend up to 3 hours, 14 minutes a day

looking for information (Source: Information Work Productivity Council (IWPC) and the American

Productivity & Quality Center (APQC)

Retrieving Different Kinds of Information - Methods

• Ideas• Snippets of

information• Quotations• URLs

• Documents and their contents

• E-mail messages• Images/pictures• PowerPoint

presentations

Retrieving Ideas

• Find sites, books, newsletters, people, Weblogs that get your creative juices going

• Subscribe to them or visit the sites often• Capture the key ideas in your snippet

managers or in a mind mapping tool

Searching InfoSelect Image

Retrieving Documents

• Folders organized hierarchically• Desktop search engines (more about

these later)

Retrieving URLs (raise your hand when you hear the

method you use)

• Send e-mail to self, with URL referencing the Web page

• Send e-mail to others that contains a Web page reference – with the intent to search the Sent Mail folder or contact recipients later to re-access the web information

• Print out the web page and put it into a binder (or a pile)

URLs, continued…

• Save the Web page as a file (FileSave Page as…)

• Paste into a document the URL for a Web page• Add a hyperlink into a personal Web site• Bookmark the Web page• Write down the notes on paper containing the

URL and actions to be taken

URLs, continued…

• Copy to a “links” toolbar so that the web address is always in view in the browser and can be quickly accessed

• Create a “note” in Outlook that contains the URL and can be associated with a date

• Source: William Jones & Harry Bruce and Susan Dumais. How Do People Get Back to Information on the Web?  How Can They Do It Better? [Online] Site URL: http://kftf.ischool.washington.edu/Jones,%20Bruce,%20Dumais%20Interact%202003.htm

Retrieving URLs, continued…

• Bookmark organizers• Search by word or phrase

Bookmark Organizer Image

E-mail

• Self-addressed e-mail• E-mail to colleagues with cc: or bcc: to

yourself– Then file in appropriate e-mail folder

• E-mail to a list that archives information

E-mail Folder Image

Citation Managers

• Search for specific references – by topic, author, text words, date or

combinations • Then turn those citations into a

bibliography• Cite while you write

Desktop Search Engines

• Applications that search across various kinds of files to locate that one phrase or word that you know gives you the critical information

• Can’t find a file but you remember a word that was in it?

• No problem, search your desktop for any file with that information (doc, pdf, txt, xls, etc)

Desktop Search Engines

• Discover• X1• Enfish • FILEhand Search• Upcoming search engines

Upcoming Desktop Search Engines

• These search engines will search BOTH your desktop and the Web

• Copernic Desktop Indexer• Lycos HotBot Desktop• Microsoft• Yahoo!• Google’s Puffin• Apple

Retrieving Information and Getting Things Done (GTD)

• Keeping organized and caught up• Use folders to organize files by project• Use applications that make it easy to find critical

information• Don’t be afraid to try out new applications that

colleagues recommend as being high quality• Talk to a librarian about information

management and information management tools

Securing information and ideas

• Backing up (current information)• Archiving (older information)• HIPAA• Responsible use of information

Security: Backing Up

• Back up what? How often? Where? How? With what?

• Applications for making copies of important documents and information– Eazy Backup – Genie-Soft Backup Manager

Security: Archiving

• Archive old data when you no longer need it– To a external disk drive– To a CD-R or CD-RW– To a Zip disk

Security: HIPAA

• Suggestions for maintaining data and person confidentiality come from a MMWR article

• Link is provided in the Webliography

Responsible Use of Information

• Cite resources used from the Web and from paper documents

• How much text can I use?• Can I use images, software, music?

So, How Do You…?

• Find information in your office?• Find information on your computer?

Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival!

W. Edwards Deming (1900 - 1993)

Contact Information

• Laura Larsson• Cedar Collaboration• larsson@cedarc.info or• larsson@u.washington.edu