Joyce Valenza’s Neverending Search

A librarian’s confession–I’ve never really wanted to have anything to do with cards. Not catalog cards, not source cards, not notecards. (Heck, I don’t even like sending birthday cards.) As soon as it all started going electronic, I wanted to shuffle and search digitally.

We’ve subscribed to NoodleTools, an electronic documentation programs for a couple of years now. Many of our students and teachers rely on it. I knew about the new “My Notes” notecard component when we started school in September. I advertised it to the whole faculty. Strangely, the teachers who loved and used NoodleBib with their students were not interested in the notecard function. The teachers who loved notecards were not all that interested in venturing online with NoodleBib. They love their cards.
This past week a new teacher Brooke and I put My Notes through its paces. We offered the students the option of using the generator or the traditional written card approach. They preferred the electronic version hands-down. They really liked it. They were taking real notes and they were thinking about whether it was best to quote or paraphrase.

My Notes automatically links cards to sources students already recorded. It allows students to cluster cards and to create tags to resort ideas. It identifies and separates quotes, paraphrases, and original ideas. No need to retype anything. Shuffling is a breeze.

In this flexible, sortable, digital format cards suddenly make sense.

Brooke, the students, and I are spreading the word. I suspect this will be part of our research culture by next September.

Another cool NoodleTools feature I discovered through this experience is the Analysis/Stats feature. This tool breaks down a works consulted/works cited list, answering the questions: “Have I gathered enough information and met the requirements?” Is this the right balance of print and online sources for my research?” (This is a mushy line for me–many of our resources are available in multiple formats.) “Did I make full use of the resources available to me?” “Is currency important because I am reporting on a time-sensitive issue or evolving topic?”

Here are some sample screens: