Upgrade StorageMaking Abstract work for you?
How do you make the "Abstract" field of an item work for you?
Do many of you use the space as your "personal abstract" for an item, noting, e.g., how it's relevant to you, the context in which it came up for you?
For those of you who limit the space to official abstracts, how do you keep track of your "personal abstract" for items? Just put them in item child notes? Something else?
I'm especially interested in cases where 1) the abstract is long and unhelpful or 2) the item doesn't have a natural "Abstract.
I'm especially intrested to hear from those of you trying to push Zotero to its personal knowledge management system limits.
For context...
Until Zotero 7, I had made the habit of deleting all abstract info for every item. Even for journal articles. I found this content to be more hinderance than help in Zotero, more often cluttering search results than helping to recover important items.
But now that Zotero 7 has brought "Abstract" out as a top-level component of an item (well, on the same level as Attachments, Notes, Info, etc., in my view), which I really like, I'm revisiting my usage of it. It feels like a total waste to let this field lie fallow. But my previous usage issues with it persist.
I started using it as "personal abstract" space, as I described above. But @adamsmith's comments in another thread:
> Personally I only use the abstract for the 'official' abstract
were enough to give me pause. I take Zotero developers' personal usage habits pretty seriously :) It does seem a bit wrong to use it as a personal abstract, esp., considering that it would get exported in the .bib file by default.
I'm going to go with the following approach for now. But would love to hear from others who have an alternative approach.
* "Abstract" usage: Ask an LLM for a keyword-dense abstract intended for info retrieval in a PKMS.
* "personal abstract": Just capture as an item child note with "Context: ..." as first line and `mt/context` as a tag (`mt` is "my type", which I use to hack my own set of item types).
E.g., consider the text which filles the Abstract when adding "The Master and His Emissary" [1] to Zotero from the web browser connector.
> In a book of unprecedented scope--now available in a larger format—Iain McGilchrist presents a fascinating exploration of the differences between the brain’s left and right hemispheres, and how those differences have affected society, history, and culture. McGilchrist draws on a vast body of recent research in neuroscience and psychology to reveal that the difference is profound: the left hemisphere is detail oriented, while the right has greater breadth, flexibility, and generosity. McGilchrist then takes the reader on a journey through the history of Western culture, illustrating the tension between these two worlds as revealed in the thought and belief of thinkers and artists from Aeschylus to Magritte. "A landmark new book. . . . It tells a story you need to hear, of where we live now."—Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times"A very remarkable book. . . . McGilchrist, who is both an experienced psychiatrist and a shrewd philosopher, looks at the relation between our two brain-hemispheres in a new light, not just as an interesting neurological problem but as a crucial shaping factor in our culture . . . splendidly thought-provoking. . . . I couldn't put it down."—Mary Midgley, The GuardianNamed one of the best books of 2010 by The Guardian
What a mess!
Alternatively, this is what I received after prompting an LLM:
> McGilchrist synthesizes neuroscientific research and cultural analysis to examine how brain hemisphere lateralization shapes human consciousness and civilization. The left hemisphere, specialized for narrow focus, sequential processing, and abstraction, contrasts with the right hemisphere's capacity for holistic perception, emotional intelligence, and contextual understanding. This neurological asymmetry profoundly influences human cognition, art, philosophy, and societal development. Drawing from neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and art history, McGilchrist argues that Western civilization increasingly privileges left-hemispheric modes of thinking—characterized by reductionism, mechanistic analysis, and bureaucratic systematization—at the expense of right-hemispheric contributions like intuitive understanding, metaphorical thinking, and empathetic awareness. This shift threatens to diminish human experience and understanding by overlooking the essential role of right-hemispheric processing in meaning-making and consciousness. The book traces this hemispheric tension through Western cultural history, from ancient Greece to modern times, demonstrating its impact on religious thought, artistic expression, scientific inquiry, and social organization. Keywords: neuroscience, hemispheric lateralization, consciousness studies, Western civilization, cognitive psychology, philosophy of mind, cultural evolution, neuropsychology, art history, intellectual history.
[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Master-His-Emissary-Divided-Western/dp/0300188374
Do many of you use the space as your "personal abstract" for an item, noting, e.g., how it's relevant to you, the context in which it came up for you?
For those of you who limit the space to official abstracts, how do you keep track of your "personal abstract" for items? Just put them in item child notes? Something else?
I'm especially interested in cases where 1) the abstract is long and unhelpful or 2) the item doesn't have a natural "Abstract.
I'm especially intrested to hear from those of you trying to push Zotero to its personal knowledge management system limits.
For context...
Until Zotero 7, I had made the habit of deleting all abstract info for every item. Even for journal articles. I found this content to be more hinderance than help in Zotero, more often cluttering search results than helping to recover important items.
But now that Zotero 7 has brought "Abstract" out as a top-level component of an item (well, on the same level as Attachments, Notes, Info, etc., in my view), which I really like, I'm revisiting my usage of it. It feels like a total waste to let this field lie fallow. But my previous usage issues with it persist.
I started using it as "personal abstract" space, as I described above. But @adamsmith's comments in another thread:
> Personally I only use the abstract for the 'official' abstract
were enough to give me pause. I take Zotero developers' personal usage habits pretty seriously :) It does seem a bit wrong to use it as a personal abstract, esp., considering that it would get exported in the .bib file by default.
I'm going to go with the following approach for now. But would love to hear from others who have an alternative approach.
* "Abstract" usage: Ask an LLM for a keyword-dense abstract intended for info retrieval in a PKMS.
* "personal abstract": Just capture as an item child note with "Context: ..." as first line and `mt/context` as a tag (`mt` is "my type", which I use to hack my own set of item types).
E.g., consider the text which filles the Abstract when adding "The Master and His Emissary" [1] to Zotero from the web browser connector.
> In a book of unprecedented scope--now available in a larger format—Iain McGilchrist presents a fascinating exploration of the differences between the brain’s left and right hemispheres, and how those differences have affected society, history, and culture. McGilchrist draws on a vast body of recent research in neuroscience and psychology to reveal that the difference is profound: the left hemisphere is detail oriented, while the right has greater breadth, flexibility, and generosity. McGilchrist then takes the reader on a journey through the history of Western culture, illustrating the tension between these two worlds as revealed in the thought and belief of thinkers and artists from Aeschylus to Magritte. "A landmark new book. . . . It tells a story you need to hear, of where we live now."—Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times"A very remarkable book. . . . McGilchrist, who is both an experienced psychiatrist and a shrewd philosopher, looks at the relation between our two brain-hemispheres in a new light, not just as an interesting neurological problem but as a crucial shaping factor in our culture . . . splendidly thought-provoking. . . . I couldn't put it down."—Mary Midgley, The GuardianNamed one of the best books of 2010 by The Guardian
What a mess!
Alternatively, this is what I received after prompting an LLM:
> McGilchrist synthesizes neuroscientific research and cultural analysis to examine how brain hemisphere lateralization shapes human consciousness and civilization. The left hemisphere, specialized for narrow focus, sequential processing, and abstraction, contrasts with the right hemisphere's capacity for holistic perception, emotional intelligence, and contextual understanding. This neurological asymmetry profoundly influences human cognition, art, philosophy, and societal development. Drawing from neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and art history, McGilchrist argues that Western civilization increasingly privileges left-hemispheric modes of thinking—characterized by reductionism, mechanistic analysis, and bureaucratic systematization—at the expense of right-hemispheric contributions like intuitive understanding, metaphorical thinking, and empathetic awareness. This shift threatens to diminish human experience and understanding by overlooking the essential role of right-hemispheric processing in meaning-making and consciousness. The book traces this hemispheric tension through Western cultural history, from ancient Greece to modern times, demonstrating its impact on religious thought, artistic expression, scientific inquiry, and social organization. Keywords: neuroscience, hemispheric lateralization, consciousness studies, Western civilization, cognitive psychology, philosophy of mind, cultural evolution, neuropsychology, art history, intellectual history.
[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Master-His-Emissary-Divided-Western/dp/0300188374
But you don't have to worry about the Abstract taking much space in Zotero 7, and the Abstract section can be collapsed using the little arrow to the right above it, and this choice will persist between items and even if you quit and restart.
I include my summaries as child notes of an item, or if it is a summary of multiple items, I include it in a standalone note. Since page-specific active citations can be included in notes, and even equations, tables and images are allowed, you can create a better summary within a note.