Upgrade StorageReverse Tagging
I ask you if someone could give me a piece of advice on the following question.
When I read papers or books that contain some interesting information or remark on a subject (say, for instant "Bismarck") I write down, on a card with the name "Bismarck" on the top, the reference of the book or paper, together with the number of the page where I found the information or remark. This is quite time consuming and perhaps stupid.
Would it be possible to do it using Zotero, so that 1) the citation would be carried automatically to my note and 2) I could assign my note tags?
One possibility would be that each note be a .odt file so that the reference could be automatically copied as a citation from Zotero. But could I enter the .odt file as a standalone note into my library and assign it tags?
If I cannot do it through Zotero, can you recommend me another app, or a different method?
Thankfully.
When I read papers or books that contain some interesting information or remark on a subject (say, for instant "Bismarck") I write down, on a card with the name "Bismarck" on the top, the reference of the book or paper, together with the number of the page where I found the information or remark. This is quite time consuming and perhaps stupid.
Would it be possible to do it using Zotero, so that 1) the citation would be carried automatically to my note and 2) I could assign my note tags?
One possibility would be that each note be a .odt file so that the reference could be automatically copied as a citation from Zotero. But could I enter the .odt file as a standalone note into my library and assign it tags?
If I cannot do it through Zotero, can you recommend me another app, or a different method?
Thankfully.
I now read almost all journal articles and technical reports online and download those I want to keep to my appropriate Zotero collection. I assign Zotero tags [the equivalent of keywords] which can have colors assigned. Zotero (I'm using the version 6 beta) allows you to annotate the PDFs with your comments. You can also attach your own notes to each Zotero record. If you are creating an annotated bibliography you can selectively use these notes and annotations in your Zotero-created bibliography/report. I always end up needing to do some cosmetic editing. However, Zotero makes the process of organizing items and generating annotated bibliographies almost easy.
If you desire something other than this please say more and describe what you want in greater detail.
edit:
It appears that you may be a new Zotero user or maybe not yet a user. If so, go to the documentation [https://www.zotero.org/support/ ] and view "Using Zotero" item-by-item.
If you want to understand Zotero's power:
There are several very good Zotero tutorials on YouTube. My favorites (although they refer to an older version of the program) are by Nicholas Cifuentes-Goodbody. Know that Zotero is now much more powerful than when these 6-year old videos were made (the Zotero version 4 in the videos is no longer distributed). See:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYspUZGexLdDLjHRkuERQlg
Some of what Nicholas describes seems to directly address your questions.
You should also know that Zotero makes adding citations to LibreOffice Writer documents a breeze.
Let me make a concrete example.
Suppose I'm reading a text about the expansion of Berlin at the end of the 19th century and I find there a few lines about a now disappeared street that was called "Am Kroegel". The book contains a wealth of information about hundreds of subjects like this, that it mentions only en passant; while there are many other subjects that it discusses deeply.
I would attach to the reference of this book a tag "kroegel", as well as tags to the other subjects it mentions and about which I think that I'm going to work one day.
But would I attach to the reference also a note , with a list of the subjects it deals with only en passant and the page numbers?
Working in my pre-seventies way, with index cards, I would have one or more cards with the title "Kroegel" and a list of references with the page number where the street is mentioned. I would (awkwardly) tag the card with the subjects for which mentioning this street would be pertinent.
I would like to know if I can do this with Zotero and -so to speak- inside Zotero. Standalone notes could be used for that. But - here is the real question - : should I think in a different way and device a more zoteric way of organizing my notes?
Thank you.