First, a little backstory: I’ve collected for most of my life. I collect nutcrackers, dolls from around the world, calendar pages, weird stuff. In fact, I have a digital notetaking app and a bookmarking app that, up until very recently, were both bursting at the seems with all the weird things I’ve collected. It’s a lot like saving interesting calendar pages. I tell myself that I’ll make use of it at a later date as part of a project that isn’t more than two words in my head. And like so many of those calendar pages, a lot of those notes and links have been deleted in the past six months because I realized I couldn’t remember why I’d saved them to begin with.
These are supposed to be both my reference files and my inspiration…and because I haven’t really paid attention, they’ve proven to be just overwhelming and confusing.
I also pretty much grew up in libraries and museums. When I was in high school, I volunteered in my school’s library and quickly earned the task of maintaining both card catalogs. I had to add in new cards, sort misplaced cards to their correct drawer, and remove outdated ones for both the public and the acquisitions drawers. In college, I started working in museums, where I picked up a bit about collections management before being forced to sit through the most in-depth, informative class I’ve ever experienced in my life. (We probably learned five years’ worth of collections management information in fifteen weeks because the professor really knew her stuff and knew how to make full use of fifty minutes. Keeping up with her was a challenge most days.)
Needless to say, I’ve learned a little bit about collections management and curation, mainly through hands-on experience.
When I sat down to clean up both Springpad and delicious, I tried to take a curatorial mindset. What needed to be in the collection? Where did it need to be in the collection? What metadata did it need to be usable within the collection? I’m even trying to develop a plan for the acquisition and maintenance of clips, links, notes, and other materials so I won’t fall into this pack rat trap again. Over the next couple of weeks, I hope to cover here how I’m applying that mindset to different tools I use to keep myself organized, motivated, and inspired.
