Zettelkasten

{{Short description|Knowledge management and note-taking method}}

{{redirect|Card file|the use of cards in library cataloguing|Card catalog|the Microsoft application|Cardfile|the rotating device used to store information|Rolodex}}

File:Zettelkasten_(514941699).jpg

File:Zettelkasten_paper_schematic.png

A {{lang|de|Zettelkasten}} (German: 'slipbox', plural {{lang|de|Zettelkästen}}) or card file consists of small items of information stored on {{lang|de|Zetteln}} (German: 'slips'), paper slips or cards, that may be linked to each other through subject headings or other metadata such as numbers and tags.{{cite book |last=Moeller |first=Hans-Bernhard |date=1989 |orig-year=1971 |chapter=Perception, Word-Play, and the Printed Page: Arno Schmidt and his Poe Novel |editor-last=Matuz |editor-first=Roger |title=Contemporary Literary Criticism: Excerpts from Criticism of the Works of Today's Novelists, Poets, Playwrights, and Other Creative Writers |volume=56 |location=Detroit; London |publisher=Gale Research |isbn=978-0-8103-4430-3 |issn=0091-3421 |page=[https://archive.org/details/contemporarylite56detr/page/392 392] |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/contemporarylite56detr/page/392 |chapter-url-access=registration |quote='Zettel' is German for an index card, and a 'Zettelkasten' is a writer's index card file. Schmidt prepared for Zettels Traum with a collection of more than 100,000 index cards in his legendary card file.}}{{cite book |last=Eco |first=Umberto |author-link=Umberto Eco |date=2015 |orig-year=1977 |chapter=The Work Plan and the Index Cards |title=How to Write a Thesis |translator=Caterina Mongiat Farina and Geoff Farina |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=MIT Press |pages=107–144 |isbn=978-0-262-52713-2 |oclc=897401730 |jstor=j.ctt17kk9g5.10 |doi=10.7551/mitpress/10029.003.0008}} A book on the same topic published a decade earlier was: {{cite book |last=Teitelbaum |first=Harry |date=1966 |chapter=Note-taking |title=How to Write Theses: A Guide to the Research Paper |series=Monarch Notes and Study Guides |volume=888-8 |location=New York |publisher=Distributed by Monarch Press |pages=[https://archive.org/details/howtowritetheses0000teit/page/29 29–39] |isbn=978-0-671-18726-2 |oclc=189085 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/howtowritetheses0000teit/page/29 |chapter-url-access=registration}} It has often been used as a system of note-taking and personal knowledge management for research, study, and writing.{{cite journal |last=Mattern |first=Shannon |date=December 2020 |title=The Spectacle of Data: A Century of Fairs, Fiches, and Fantasies |journal=Theory, Culture & Society |volume=37 |issue=7–8 |pages=133–155 (146) |doi=10.1177/0263276420958052 |s2cid=225124110 |quote=Over the decades, cards put to personal use have provided aesthetic and intellectual inspiration to myriad artists, writers, and designers.}}

In the 1980s, the card file began to be used as metaphor in the interface of some hypertextual personal knowledge base software applications such as NoteCards.{{multiref2 | {{cite journal |last=Conklin |first=Jeff |date=September 1987 |title=Hypertext: An Introduction and Survey |journal=Computer |volume=20 |issue=9 |pages=17–41 |doi=10.1109/MC.1987.1663693 |s2cid=9188803 |url=http://www.cognexus.org/Hypertext-_An_Introduction_and_Survey_(1987).pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170813004401/http://www.cognexus.org/Hypertext-_An_Introduction_and_Survey_(1987).pdf |archive-date=2017-08-13 |url-status=live |quote=One kind of manual hypertext is the traditional use of 3×5 index cards for note taking. Note cards are often referenced to each other, as well as arranged hierarchically (for example, in a shoebox or in rubber-banded bundles). A particular advantage of note cards is that their small size modularizes the notes into small chunks. The user can easily reorganize a set of cards when new information suggests a restructuring of the notes. ... Perhaps the best known version of full hypertext [software] is the NoteCards system developed at Xerox PARC.}} | {{cite book |last1=Neuwirth |first1=Christine |last2=Kaufer |first2=David |last3=Chimera |first3=Rick |last4=Gillespie |first4=Terilyn |date=November 1987 |chapter=The Notes Program: A Hypertext Application for Writing from Source Texts |title=HYPERTEXT '87: Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Hypertext: November 13–15, Chapel Hill, North Carolina |location=New York |publisher=Association for Computing Machinery |pages=121–141 |isbn=978-0-89791-340-9 |oclc=612420419 |doi=10.1145/317426.317437 |doi-access=free |quote=The Notes program has an analog in earlier technology: 3×5 note cards. The following section, which outlines some key components in the writing process, lays the theoretical groundwork for exploring the benefits of note cards for writers, the limitations of conventional note cards, and the expected benefits of computer-based note cards. ... At least one of the general network-based editors, NoteCards, could probably be specialized to support the task-optimized linking of the Notes program.}} | {{cite journal |last=Halasz |first=Frank G. |date=July 1988 |title=Reflections on NoteCards: Seven Issues for the Next Generation of Hypermedia Systems |journal=Communications of the ACM |volume=31 |issue=7 |pages=836–852 |doi=10.1145/48511.48514 |doi-access=free |quote=NoteCards was designed to help people work with ideas. Its intended users are authors, researchers, designers, and other intellectual laborers engaged in analyzing information, constructing models, formulating arguments, designing artifacts, and generally processing ideas. The system provides the user with a network of electronic notecards interconnected by typed links. ... Fileboxes are specialized cards that can be used to organize or categorize large collections of notecards.}} | {{cite thesis |type=Ed.D. thesis |last=Lin |first=Liang-Yi |date=1989 |title=Learning to Use Hypertext Systems with Metaphors: An Interface Design Perspective |location=Urbana, IL |publisher=University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |isbn=979-8-207-82289-1 |oclc=23103660 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/303766704 |id={{ProQuest|303766704}} |url-access=subscription |quote=NoteCards provides the user with a "semantic network" of electronic notecards interconnected by typed links. This network serves as a medium in which the user can represent collections of related ideas. It also functions as a structure for organizing, storing, and retrieving information. In the NoteCards system, a note card is an electronic generalization of the 3 by 5 paper note card. ... Links are used to interconnect individual note cards into networks or structures of related cards. ... The note card metaphor embodied some of the important elements of hypertext systems which the book metaphor did not have.}} | {{cite book |last=Nielsen |first=Jakob |author-link=Jakob Nielsen (usability consultant) |date=1995 |chapter=NoteCards (1985) |title=Multimedia and Hypertext: The Internet and Beyond |location=Boston |publisher=AP Professional |pages=[https://archive.org/details/multimediahypert00niel/page/47 47–50] |isbn=978-0-12-518408-3 |oclc=31709144 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/multimediahypert00niel/page/47 |chapter-url-access=registration |quote=NoteCards may be the most famous of the original hypertext research systems ... Each node is a single {{em|notecard}} ... The {{em|links}} are typed connections between cards.}} }} In the 1990s, such software inspired the invention of wikis.{{cite book |last1=Leuf |first1=Bo |author1-link=Bo Leuf |last2=Cunningham |first2=Ward |author2-link=Ward Cunningham |date=2001 |title=The Wiki Way: Quick Collaboration on the Web |location=Boston |publisher=Addison-Wesley |pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780201714999/page/15 15], [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780201714999/page/365 365] |isbn=978-0-201-71499-9 |oclc=45715320 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780201714999 |url-access=registration |quote=Ward called it 'the simplest online database that could possibly work'. In 1994, he wanted a quick way to collaboratively publish software patterns on the Web. Ideas that had developed from his work with program development and HyperCard stacks went into it, and the first 'wiki server' was born. ... Wiki shares some history with the use of index cards in object-oriented programming. Both Wiki and CRC Cards credit an unpublished HyperCard stack as their common ancestor.}}

Use in personal knowledge management

As used in research, study, and writing, a card file consists of many individual notes with ideas and other short pieces of information that are taken down as they occur or are acquired. The notes may be numbered hierarchically so that new notes may be inserted at the appropriate place, and contain metadata to allow the note-taker to associate notes with each other. For example, notes may contain subject headings or tags that describe key aspects of the note, and they may reference other notes. The numbering, metadata, format, and structure of the notes are subject to variation depending on the specific method employed.

The system not only allows a researcher to store and retrieve information related to their research, but has also long been used to enhance creativity.{{cite book |last1=Cevolini |first1=Alberto |chapter=Storing Expansions: Openness and Closure in Secondary Memories |editor1-last=Cevolini |editor1-first=Alberto |title=Forgetting Machines: Knowledge Management Evolution in Early Modern Europe |series=Library of the written word |volume=53 |location=Leiden; Boston |publisher=Brill |date=2016 |isbn=978-90-04-27846-2 |oclc=951955805 |doi=10.1163/9789004325258_005 |page=155–187 (158) |quote=The user may enlarge his collection of extracts, but he can also multiply the number of cross-references, links, and pointers ... Historical research has demonstrated that scholars became aware of this structural feature between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. For example, according to Christoph Meiners, the connection of facts and thoughts which are entrusted to a private card file can produce a substantial number of combinations and insights that otherwise might not have existed.}}

History

The paper slip or card has long been used by individual researchers and by organizations to manage information, including the specialized form of the card catalog.

Coming from a commonplace book tradition,{{cite book |last1=Havens |first1=Earle |title=Commonplace Books: A History of Manuscripts and Printed Books from Antiquity to the Twentieth Century |date=2001 |publisher=Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University |location=New Haven |pages=34–35 |isbn=978-0-8457-3137-6 |oclc=47767194}} Conrad Gessner (1516–1565) invented his own method of organization in which the individual notes could be rearranged at any time. In retrospect, his recommendation of gluing slips onto bound sheets{{cite book |last1=Zedelmaier |first1=Helmut |editor1-last=Cevolini |editor1-first=Alberto |title=Forgetting Machines: Knowledge Management Evolution in Early Modern Europe |series=Library of the written word |volume=53 |location=Leiden; Boston |publisher=Brill |date=2016 |isbn=978-90-04-27846-2 |oclc=951955805 |doi=10.1163/9789004325258_008 |page=102 |chapter=Christoph Just Udenius and the German ars excerpendi around 1700: On the Flourishing and Disappearance of a Pedagogical Genre |quote=His [Johann Friedrich Blumenbach's] example is the sixteenth-century Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner, who recommended gluing slips onto bound sheets.}} was an innovation in moving from commonplace books to index cards as a form factor for scholarly information management.{{cite book |last1=Blair |first1=Ann M. |title=Too Much to Know: Managing Scholarly Information before the Modern Age |date=2010 |location=New Haven |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-11251-1 |oclc=601347978 |jstor=j.ctt1nptsm |doi=10.12987/9780300168495|s2cid=187487133 }}{{rp|212-225}}

File:Houghton GC6.P6904.689d - Placcius, 154.jpg

The first early modern card cabinet was designed by 17th-century English inventor Thomas Harrison ({{circa}} 1640s). Harrison's manuscript on the "ark of studies"{{cite book |first=Thomas |last=Harrison |title=The Ark of Studies |editor-first=Alberto |editor-last=Cevolini |series=De diversis artibus |volume=102 |location=Turnhout, Belgium |publisher=Brepols |date=2017 |isbn=978-2-503-57523-0 |oclc=1004589834}} (Arca studiorum) describes a small cabinet that allows users to excerpt books and file their notes in a specific order by attaching pieces of paper to metal hooks labeled by subject headings.{{cite web |last1=Blei |first1=Daniela |title=How the Index Card Cataloged the World |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/12/how-the-index-card-catalogued-the-world/547271/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508022255/https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/12/how-the-index-card-catalogued-the-world/547271/ |archive-date=2021-05-08 |website=The Atlantic |publisher=The Atlantic |access-date=4 July 2021 |date=2017-12-01}} Harrison's system was edited and improved by Vincent Placcius in his well-known handbook on excerpting methods (De arte excerpendi, 1689).{{cite book |last=Placcius |first=Vincent |author-link=Vincent Placcius |date=1689 |title=De arte excerpendi vom gelehrten Buchhalten liber singularis, quo genera & praecepta excerpendi, ab aliis hucusq[ue]; tradita omnia, novis accessionibus aucta, ordinata methodo exhibentur, et suis quaeque materiis applicantur ... |language=Latin |location=Stockholm; Hamburg |publisher=Apud Gottfried Liebezeit, bibliop. literisq[ue] Spiringianis |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_IgMVAAAAQAAJ/page/n156 138] |oclc=22260654 |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_IgMVAAAAQAAJ}} The German polymath Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) was known to have relied on Harrison's invention in at least one of his research projects.{{cite journal |last=Malcolm |first=Noel |date=September 2004 |title=Thomas Harrison and his 'ark of studies': an episode in the history of the organization of knowledge |journal=The Seventeenth Century |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=196–232 (220–221) |doi=10.1080/0268117X.2004.10555543|s2cid=171203209 }}

In 1767, Carl Linnaeus used "little paper slips of a standard size" to record information for his research.{{cite journal |last1=Müller-Wille |first1=Staffan |last2=Charmantier |first2=Isabelle |title=Natural history and information overload: The case of Linnaeus |journal=Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences |date=March 2012 |volume=43 |issue=1 |pages=4–15 |doi=10.1016/j.shpsc.2011.10.021 |pmid=22326068 |language=English|pmc=3878424 }} Over 1,000 of Linnaeus's precursors to the modern index card containing information collected from books and other publications and measuring five by three inches are housed at the Linnean Society of London.

Later in his own commonplace, under the heading "My way of collecting materials for future writings" (translated), Johann Jacob Moser (1701–1785) described the algorithms with which he filled his card boxes.{{Cite web |last=Haarkötter |first=Hektor |title='Alles Wesentliche findet sich im Zettelkasten' |url=https://www.heise.de/tp/features/Alles-Wesentliche-findet-sich-im-Zettelkasten-3398418.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200715113150/https://www.heise.de/tp/features/Alles-Wesentliche-findet-sich-im-Zettelkasten-3398418.html |archive-date=2020-07-15 |access-date=2020-05-31 |website=heise online |language=de}}

The 1796 idyll Leben des Quintus Fixlein by German Romantic writer Jean Paul is structured according to the {{lang|de|Zettelkasten}} in which the protagonist keeps his autobiography. Paul ultimately assembled 12,000 paper scraps into his commonplace books over the course of his lifetime.{{cite web |last1=Helbig |first1=Daniela K. |title=Ruminant machines: a twentieth-century episode in the material history of ideas |url=https://jhiblog.org/2019/04/17/ruminant-machines-a-twentieth-century-episode-in-the-material-history-of-ideas/ |website=Journal of the History of Ideas Blog |date=17 April 2019 |access-date=8 June 2021}}

French scholars Charles-Victor Langlois and Charles Seignobos, in their Introduction to the Study of History (1897), recommended that historians take notes on paper slips or cards, and they commented: "Every one admits nowadays that it is advisable to collect materials on separate cards or slips of paper."{{cite book |last1=Langlois |first1=Charles Victor |author1-link=Charles-Victor Langlois |last2=Seignobos |first2=Charles |author2-link=Charles Seignobos |date=1912 |orig-year=1897 |title=Introduction to the Study of History |translator=G. G. Berry |location=New York |publisher=Henry Holt and Company |oclc=2849202 |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29637}} However, some decades later other scholars said that in America in the 1890s the card-file note-taking system was "still something of a novelty".{{cite book |last1=Good |first1=Carter V. |last2=Scates |first2=Douglas E. |date=1954 |chapter=Note-taking and Note Systems |title=Methods of Research: Educational, Psychological, Sociological |location=New York |publisher=Appleton-Century-Crofts |pages=[https://archive.org/details/methodsofresearc0000good/page/187 187–188] |oclc=310881 |doi=10.1037/13206-004 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/methodsofresearc0000good/page/187 |chapter-url-access=registration}}

= 20th century =

Antonin Sertillanges' book The Intellectual Life (1921) outlines in Chapter 7 a version of the card-file method.{{cite book |last1=Antonin |first1=Sertillanges |author-link1= Antonin Sertillanges |title=The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods |date=1948 |publisher=The Newman Press |location=Westminster, Maryland |translator=Mary Ryan |pages=[https://archive.org/details/intellectuallife0000sert/page/186 186–198] |language=English |oclc=6033719 |url=https://archive.org/details/intellectuallife0000sert |url-access=registration}} Translated from the 1934 new French edition. For other editions, see: {{cite web |title=Sertillanges, A.-D 1863–1948 |url=https://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n89632727/ |website=WorldCat |access-date=3 November 2021}} The book was published in French, and translated into English, in many editions over the span of 60 years. In it, Sertillanges recommends taking notes on slips of "strong paper of a uniform size" either self made with a paper cutter or by "special firms that will spare you the trouble, providing slips of every size and color as well as the necessary boxes and accessories". He also recommends a "certain number of tagged slips, guide-cards, so as to number each category visibly after having numbered each slip, in the corner or in the middle". He goes on to suggest creating a catalog or index of subjects with divisions and subdivisions and recommends the "very ingenious system", the decimal system, for organizing one's research. For the details of this he refers the reader to Organization of Intellectual Work: Practical Recipes for Use by Students of All Faculties and Workers (1918) by {{interlanguage link|Paul Chavigny|fr}}.{{cite book |last1=Chavigny |first1=Paul |title=Organisation du travail intellectuel: recettes pratiques à l'usage des étudiants de toutes les facultés et de tous les travailleurs |date=1918 |location=Paris |publisher=Delagrave |hdl=2027/loc.ark:/13960/t3cz41v8p |language=French |oclc=489977122 |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/loc.ark:/13960/t3cz41v8p}} Sertillanges recommends against the previous patterns seen with commonplace books where one does note taking in books or on slips of paper which might be pasted into books as they don't "easily allow classification" or "readily lend themselves to use at the moment of writing".

File:Card file examples from Principles of a Note-System for Historical Studies by Earle W. Dow 1924.png

File:A card-file number hierarchy recommended in How to Locate Educational Information and Data by Carter Alexander 1935.svg

Some examples of English-language research manuals with instructions for a card-file note-taking system are: Earle W. Dow's Principles of a Note-system for Historical Studies (1924),{{cite book |last=Dow |first=Earle W. |date=1924 |title=Principles of a Note-system for Historical Studies |series=Century Historical Series |location=New York |publisher=The Century Company |oclc=4562633 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=evg1AAAAMAAJ}} Homer C. Hockett's Introduction to Research in American History (1931),{{cite book |last=Hockett |first=Homer Carey |date=1948 |orig-year=1931 |chapter=Note-taking |title=Introduction to Research in American History |edition=2nd |location=New York |publisher=Macmillan |pages=[https://archive.org/details/introductiontore0000home_o8w7/page/46 46–55] |oclc=1374221 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/introductiontore0000home_o8w7/page/46 |chapter-url-access=registration}} Sidney and Beatrice Webb's Methods of Social Study (1932),{{cite book |last1=Webb |first1=Sidney |author1-link=Sidney Webb |last2=Webb |first2=Beatrice |author2-link=Beatrice Webb |date=1932 |chapter=The Art of Note-taking |title=Methods of Social Study |location=London; New York |publisher=Longmans, Green & Co. |pages=[https://archive.org/details/b31357891/page/83 83–97] |oclc=904856 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/b31357891/page/83}} An earlier version of this chapter was published as: {{cite book |last=Webb |first=Beatrice |date=1926 |chapter=The Art of Note-taking |title=My Apprenticeship |location=London; New York |publisher=Longmans, Green & Co. |pages=[https://archive.org/details/myapprenticeship0000webb_d0l9/page/412 412–421] |isbn=978-0-404-14045-8 |oclc=392496 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/myapprenticeship0000webb_d0l9/page/412 |chapter-url-access=registration}} Carter Alexander's How to Locate Educational Information and Data (four editions from 1935 to 1958),{{cite book |last1=Alexander |first1=Carter |last2=Burke |first2=Arvid James |date=1958 |orig-year=1935 |chapter=Note-taking in Work with Library Materials |title=How to Locate Educational Information and Data: An Aid to Quick Utilization of the Literature of Education |edition=4th |location=New York |publisher=Teachers College, Columbia University |pages=[https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b3389054?urlappend=%3Bseq=190 168–180] |hdl=2027/uc1.b3389054?urlappend=%3Bseq=190 |oclc=14603864 |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001163857 |chapter-url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b3389054?urlappend=%3Bseq=190}} This book, which was also translated into Spanish, grew out of a pamphlet titled Educational Research first published in 1927. For other editions, see: {{cite web |title=Alexander, Carter 1881–1965 |url=https://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-no2003068107/ |website=WorldCat |access-date=16 September 2022}} Cecil B. Williams's A Research Manual (three editions from 1940 to 1963),{{cite book |last=Williams |first=Cecil B. |date=1963 |orig-year=1940 |chapter=Notes and Note-taking |title=A Research Manual for College Studies and Papers |edition=3rd |location=New York |publisher=Harper & Row |pages=[https://archive.org/details/researchmanualfo03will/page/95 95–105] |oclc=1264058764 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/researchmanualfo03will/page/95 |chapter-url-access=registration}} Chapter 9, "Notes Into Manuscript", describes how notes from a card file are used during the process of writing a work. The first edition, titled A Research Manual, was co-authored with Allan H. Stevenson. Louis R. Gottschalk's Understanding History (1951),{{cite book |last=Gottschalk |first=Louis Reichenthal |author-link=Louis R. Gottschalk |date=1969 |orig-year=1950 |chapter=Note-taking |title=Understanding History: A Primer of Historical Method |edition=2nd |location=New York |publisher=Knopf |pages=[https://archive.org/details/understandinghis0000gott/page/73 73–85] |oclc=3861 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/understandinghis0000gott/page/73 |chapter-url-access=registration}} Chauncey Sanders's An Introduction to Research in English Literary History (1952),{{cite book |last=Sanders |first=Chauncey |date=1952 |chapter=Tools of Research |title=An Introduction to Research in English Literary History: With a Chapter on Research in Folklore |location=New York |publisher=Macmillan |pages=[https://archive.org/details/introductiontore0000sand/page/86 86–88] |oclc=990373 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/introductiontore0000sand/page/86 |chapter-url-access=registration}} Jacques Barzun and Henry F. Graff's The Modern Researcher (six editions from 1957 to 2004),{{cite book |last1=Barzun |first1=Jacques |author1-link=Jacques Barzun |last2=Graff |first2=Henry F. |author2-link=Henry F. Graff |date=2004 |orig-year=1957 |title=The Modern Researcher |edition=6th |location=Belmont, CA |publisher=Thomson/Wadsworth |pages=[https://archive.org/details/modernresearcher0000barz_b3i6/page/22 22–31], [https://archive.org/details/modernresearcher0000barz_b3i6/page/176 176–183] |isbn=978-0-15-505529-2 |oclc=53244810 |url=https://archive.org/details/modernresearcher0000barz_b3i6 |url-access=registration}} The authors opine that "the researcher who has to travel is better off with notebooks than with stacks of cards" (23). Chapter 8, "Organizing", describes how notes from a card file are used during the process of writing a work. and A Guide to Historical Method (three editions from 1969 to 1980) by Robert Jones Shafer and colleagues.{{cite book |editor-last=Shafer |editor-first=Robert Jones |display-editors=etal |date=1980 |orig-year=1969 |chapter=Research Notes |title=A Guide to Historical Method |edition=3rd |series=The Dorsey Series in History |location=Homewood, Ill. |publisher=Dorsey Press |pages=[https://archive.org/details/guidetohistorica0000shaf/page/117 117–126] |isbn=978-0-256-02313-8 |oclc=6400352 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/guidetohistorica0000shaf/page/117 |chapter-url-access=registration}} A German-language manual on research methods that included instructions for a {{lang|de|Zettelkasten}} was Technique of Scholarly Work (multiple editions from the 1930s to 1970) by {{interlanguage link|Johannes Erich Heyde|de}}.{{rp|288}}{{cite book |last=Heyde |first=Johannes Erich |date=1933 |title=Technik des wissenschaftlichen Arbeitens: eine Anleitung, besonders für Studierende |edition=4th |location=Berlin |publisher=Junker und Dünnhaupt |language=de |oclc=38252126}} For other editions, see: {{cite web |title=Heyde, Johannes Erich 1892–1979 |url=https://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-no97060626/ |website=WorldCat |access-date=22 August 2022}}

American historian Frederic L. Paxson (1877–1948) filed notes on 3×5-inch paper slips daily throughout his career, and by the time of his death all the slips filled about 80 wooden file drawers.{{cite journal |last=Pomeroy |first=Earl |author-link=Earl S. Pomeroy |date=March 1953 |title=Frederic L. Paxson and His Approach to History |journal=The Mississippi Valley Historical Review |volume=39 |issue=4 |pages=673–692 |doi=10.2307/1895394 |jstor=1895394}} The notes were ordered chronologically and topically, with cross-references on each card to related subject headings, linking each subject through various stages in time.

German philosopher and cultural critic Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) used a card-file note-taking system with a numbering system to create his Arcades Project written between 1927 and 1940.{{cite journal |last1=Hollier |first1=Denis |title=Notes (On the Index Card) |journal=October |date=2005 |volume=112 |issue=Spring |pages=35–44 |doi=10.1162/0162287054223918 |jstor=3397642|s2cid=57564798 }} Though the project was terminated by Benjamin's death, it was later edited and published in a final form.{{multiref2 | {{cite book |last1=Benjamin |first1=Walter |last2=Tiedemann |first2=Rolf |date=1999 |title=The Arcades Project |translator=Howard Eiland and Kevin McLaughlin |location=Cambridge, Mass. |publisher=Belknap Press |isbn=978-0-674-04326-8 |oclc=41176710 |url=https://archive.org/details/arcadesproject0000benj |url-access=registration}} | {{cite book |editor1-last=Hanssen |editor1-first=Beatrice |title=Walter Benjamin and the Arcades Project |date=2006 |series=Walter Benjamin Studies Series |publisher=Continuum |location=London; New York |isbn=978-0-8264-6386-9 |oclc=53912748}} }}

French theorist, philosopher, and writer Roland Barthes (1915–1980) kept a {{lang|fr|fichier boîte}} or index card file beginning in 1943 until his death. Curator Nathalie Léger has indicated that there are 12,250 slips in Roland Barthes' bequest at the Institut Mémoires de l'édition contemporaine (IMEC).{{cite book |last1=Krapp |first1=Peter |chapter=Hypertext Avant La Lettre |editor1-last=Chun |editor1-first=Wendy Hui Kyong |editor2-last=Keenan |editor2-first=Thomas |title=New Media, Old Theory: A History and Theory Reader |date=2006 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |pages=359–373 ([https://archive.org/details/newmediaoldmedia00chun/page/363 363]) |isbn=978-0-415-94223-2 |oclc=60492092 |doi=10.4324/9780203643839-36 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/newmediaoldmedia00chun/page/359 |chapter-url-access=registration}} Louis-Jean Calvet explains that in writing Michelet, Barthes used his notes on index cards to try out various combinations of cards to both organize them as well as "to find correspondences between them".{{cite journal |last1=Wilken |first1=Rowan |title=The card index as creativity machine |journal=Culture Machine |date=2010 |volume=11 |pages=7–30 |url=https://culturemachine.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/373-604-1-PB.pdf |access-date=23 April 2022}}{{cite book |last1=Calvet |first1=Louis-Jean |title=Roland Barthes: A Biography |date=1994 |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington, IN |isbn=978-0-253-34987-3 |oclc=31295073 |url=https://archive.org/details/rolandbarthesbio0000calv |url-access=registration}} In addition to using his card file for producing his published works, Barthes also used his note taking system for teaching. His final course on the topic of The Neutral, which he taught as a seminar at Collège de France, was contained in four bundles consisting of 800 cards which contained everything from notes, summaries, figures, and bibliographic entries. In his autobiographical Roland Barthes, Barthes reproduces three of his index cards in facsimile.{{cite book |last1=Barthes |first1=Roland |title=Roland Barthes |date=1994 |origyear=1975 |translator=Richard Howard |location=Berkeley |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-08783-5 |oclc=29954608 |page=[https://archive.org/details/rolandbarthes0000bart/page/75 75] |url=https://archive.org/details/rolandbarthes0000bart/page/75 |url-access=registration}} Published posthumously in 2010, Barthes' Mourning Diary was created from a collection of 330 of his index cards focusing on his mourning following the death of his mother. The book jacket of the book prominently features one of his index cards from the collection.{{cite book |last1=Barthes |first1=Roland |title=Mourning Diary: October 26, 1977-September 15, 1979 |date=2010 |translator=Richard Howard |location=New York |publisher=Hill and Wang |isbn=978-0-8090-6233-1 |oclc=526809468 |url=https://archive.org/details/mourningdiaryoct0000bart |url-access=registration}} In a well known photo of Barthes in his office taken by Henri Cartier-Bresson in 1963, the author is pictured with his card files on the shelf behind him.{{cite book |last1=Yacavone |first1=Kathrin |chapter=Picturing Barthes: The Photographic Construction of Authorship |editor-last=Knight |editor-first=Diana |title=Interdisciplinary Barthes |date=2020 |series=Proceedings of the British Academy |volume=228 |publisher=Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-726667-0 |oclc=1130361272 |pages=97–117 (105) |doi=10.5871/bacad/9780197266670.003.0007 |s2cid=242966795 |chapter-url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342437620}} See also: [https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Henri-Cartier-Bresson-Roland-Barthes-1963-C-PAR79520-Henri-CartierBresson-Magnum_fig2_342437620 Cartier-Bresson photograph on ResearchGate].

Starting in the 1940s, German philosopher and intellectual historian Hans Blumenberg (1920–1996) compiled more than 30,000 cards into his {{lang|de|Zettelkasten}}, which now occupy 32 conservation boxes at the German Literature Archive in Marbach.{{cite journal |last=Helbig |first=Daniela K. |date=January 2019 |title=Life without Toothache: Hans Blumenberg's Zettelkasten and History of Science as Theoretical Attitude |journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |volume=80 |issue=1 |pages=91–112 |doi=10.1353/jhi.2019.0005 |pmid=30713207 |hdl=21.11116/0000-0002-F4A8-D |s2cid=73416765 |url=https://pure.mpg.de/rest/items/item_3026314/component/file_3327044/content|hdl-access=free }} Blumenberg was inspired by the previous notetaking work and output of Georg Christoph Lichtenberg who used waste books or sudelbücher as he called them.

In the creation of the Great Books of the Western World (1952), which also includes A Syntopicon, Mortimer J. Adler and many collaborators created a large shared collection of tagged and indexed cards to collate the ideas and information for their series.{{multiref2 | {{cite book |last1=Beam |first1=Alex |title=A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books |date=2008 |location=New York |publisher=PublicAffairs |isbn=978-1-58648-487-3 |oclc=191926328 |url=https://archive.org/details/greatideaattimer0000beam |url-access=registration}} | {{cite news |last1=Campbell |first1=James |title=Heavy Reading |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/books/review/Campbell-t.html |access-date=29 October 2021 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=2008-11-14}} }}

Argentine-Canadian philosopher and physicist Mario Bunge (1919–2020), who published about 70 books and 540 articles,{{cite book |editor-last=Matthews |editor-first=Michael R. |date=2019 |title=Mario Bunge: a Centenary Festschrift |location=Cham |publisher=Springer-Verlag |page=1 |isbn=9783030166724 |oclc=1109956992 |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-16673-1}} used index cards in boxes to teach and to write publications starting in the mid-1950s.{{cite book |last=Bunge |first=Mario |author-link=Mario Bunge |date=2016 |title=Between Two Worlds: Memoirs of a Philosopher-Scientist |series=Springer Biographies |location=Berlin; New York |publisher=Springer-Verlag |pages=129, 273–274, 387 |isbn=978-3-319-29250-2 |oclc=950889848 |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-29251-9 }}

One researcher famous for his extensive use of the method was the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann (1927–1998). Starting in 1952–1953, Luhmann built up a {{lang|de|Zettelkasten}} of some 90,000 index cards for his research, and credited it for enabling his extraordinarily prolific writing (including about 50 books and 550 articles).{{Cite book |last=Schmidt |first=Johannes |chapter-url=https://pub.uni-bielefeld.de/download/2942475/2942530/jschmidt_2016_niklas%20luhmanns%20card%20index.pdf |title=Forgetting Machines: Knowledge Management Evolution in Early Modern Europe |editor-last=Cevolini |editor-first=Alberto |pages=289–311 |chapter=Niklas Luhmann's Card Index: Thinking Tool, Communication Partner, Publication Machine |location=Leiden; Boston |publisher=Brill |date=2016 |isbn=978-90-04-27846-2 |oclc=951955805 |access-date=2020-09-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201127182630/https://pub.uni-bielefeld.de/download/2942475/2942530/jschmidt_2016_niklas%20luhmanns%20card%20index.pdf |archive-date=2020-11-27 |url-status=live |doi=10.1163/9789004325258_014}} He linked the cards together by assigning each a unique index number based on a branching hierarchy. These index cards were digitized and made available online in 2019.{{Cite web |last=Noack |first=Pit |title=Missing Link: Luhmanns Denkmaschine endlich im Netz |url=https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Missing-Link-Luhmanns-Denkmaschine-endlich-im-Netz-4364512.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200712193714/https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Missing-Link-Luhmanns-Denkmaschine-endlich-im-Netz-4364512.html |archive-date=2020-07-12 |access-date=2020-05-31 |website=heise online |language=de}} Luhmann described the {{lang|de|Zettelkasten}} as part of his research into systems theory in the essay "{{lang|de|Kommunikation mit Zettelkästen}}".{{multiref2 | {{cite book |last=Luhmann |first=Niklas |chapter=Kommunikation mit Zettelkästen: Ein Erfahrungsbericht |editor-last=Kieserling |editor-first=André |title=Universität als Milieu. Kleine Schriften |publisher=Haux |location=Bielefeld |pages=53–61 |date=1992 |isbn=978-3-925471-13-1 |oclc=28139214 |language=de}} Essay originally published 1981; translated in: {{Cite web |title=Communicating with Slip Boxes by Niklas Luhmann |url=https://luhmann.surge.sh/communicating-with-slip-boxes |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307152755/https://luhmann.surge.sh/communicating-with-slip-boxes |archive-date=2016-03-07 |access-date=2020-05-31 |website=luhmann.surge.sh}} | {{cite journal |last=Cevolini |first=Alberto |date=October 2018 |title=Where does Niklas Luhmann's card index come from? |journal=Erudition and the Republic of Letters |volume=3 |issue=4 |pages=390–420 |doi=10.1163/24055069-00304002 |s2cid=149942238 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328624186}} }}

File:Roland Desnerck Oostends Woordenboek.jpg

Other well known German {{lang|de|Zettelkasten}} users include Arno Schmidt (who used a large card file to write Zettels Traum, published in 1970), Walter Kempowski, Friedrich Kittler, and Aby Warburg, whose works along with those of Paul, Blumenberg, and Luhmann appeared in the 2013 exhibition "{{lang|de|Zettelkästen}}. Machines of Fantasy" at the Museum of Modern Literature, Marbach am Neckar.{{cite book |last1=Gfrereis |first1=Heike |last2=Strittmatter |first2=Ellen |title=Zettelkästen. Maschinen der Phantasie |date=2013 |publisher=Deutsche Schillerges |location=Marbach am Neckar |series=Marbacher Kataloge |volume=66 |isbn=978-3-937384-83-2 |oclc=835530478 |language=de |quote=Der Zettelkasten ist die leibgewordene und vordigitale Variante dieser Phantasiemaschine: Lesefrüchte und Schreibeinfälle werden hier gesammelt und einsortiert, vernetzt und verschachtelt und – durch Glücksaufschläge, Buchstaben- oder Zahlencodes – immer wieder in neue Zusammenhänge gebracht: -Es- denkt und schreibt.}}

Australian writer Kate Grenville, in a chapter of The Writing Book (1990) devoted to using "piles" of notes as part of the writing process, said that screenwriters are known to use index cards to help organise their scripts,{{cite book |last1=Grenville |first1=Kate |author-link=Kate Grenville |title=The Writing Book: A Workbook for Fiction Writers |chapter=Sorting Through |location=Sydney |publisher=Allen & Unwin |year=1990 |page=[https://archive.org/details/writingbookworkb0000gren/page/18 18] |isbn=978-0-04-442124-5 |oclc=655778675 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/writingbookworkb0000gren/page/18 |chapter-url-access=registration}} and American writer Anne Lamott devoted a chapter to a writer's use of index cards in her book Bird by Bird (1994).{{cite book |last1=Lamott |first1=Anne |author-link=Anne Lamott |title=Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life |chapter=Index Cards |location=New York |publisher=Pantheon Books |year=1994 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/birdbybirdsomein00lamo/page/133 133-144] |isbn=978-0-679-43520-4 |oclc=29791864 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/birdbybirdsomein00lamo/page/133 |chapter-url-access=registration}}

German writer Michael Ende kept a {{lang|de|Zettelkasten}}, and in 1994, a year prior to his death, he published Michael Endes Zettelkasten: Skizzen und Notizen (translation: Michael Ende's File-card Box: Drafts and Notes), an anthology of some of his writing as well as observations and aphorisms from his card file.{{cite book |last=Ende |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Ende |date=1994 |title=Michael Endes Zettelkasten: Skizzen & Notizen |location=Stuttgart |publisher=Weitbrecht |isbn=978-3-522-71380-1 |oclc=30643329 |url=https://archive.org/details/michaelendeszett00mich |url-access=registration}}

Twentieth-century American comedians Phyllis Diller (with 52,000 3×5-inch index cards),{{multiref2 | {{cite web |title=Transcribing The Phyllis Diller Gag File |url=https://transcription.si.edu/phyllis-diller-cards |website=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=1 July 2021}} | {{cite web |last1=BredenbeckCorp |first1=Hanna |title=Help us transcribe Phyllis Diller's jokes—and enjoy some laughs along the way! |url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/help-us-transcribe-phyllis-dillers-jokes |website=National Museum of American History |publisher=March 1, 2017 |access-date=1 July 2021}} }} Joan Rivers (over a million 3×5-inch index cards),{{multiref2 | {{cite web |last1= |title=The Joan Rivers Archives: An exclusive look inside the lady's library-esque joke bank |url=https://www.gq.com/gallery/joan-rivers-archives-comedy |website=GQ |date=22 July 2010 |publisher=Condé Nast Inc. |access-date=1 July 2021}} | {{cite news |last1=Barron |first1=James |title=Sorting Through All the Laughs Joan Rivers Left Behind |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/22/nyregion/sorting-through-allthe-laughs-joan-rivers-left-behind.html |access-date=9 September 2022 |work=New York Times |date=2017-10-22}} }} Bob Hope (85,000 pages in files),{{cite web |title=Bob Hope and American Variety: Joke File |url=https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/bobhope/jokes.html |website=Library of Congress |date=10 May 2000 |access-date=1 July 2021}} and George Carlin (paper notes in folders){{cite magazine |last1=Rothman |first1=Lily |title=Discover George Carlin's Foolproof System for Organizing Ideas |url=https://time.com/4949766/george-carlin-joke-system/ |magazine=Time |publisher=Time Inc. |access-date=1 July 2021 |date=2017-09-29}} were known for keeping joke or gag files throughout their careers. They often compiled their notes from scraps of paper, receipts, laundry lists, and matchbooks which served the function of waste books. U.S. president Ronald Reagan kept quotes and aphorisms which he frequently used for speeches in a card collection.{{cite news |last1=Page |first1=Susan |title=Ronald Reagan's note card collection being published |url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2011-05-08-reagan-notes-book-brinkley_n.htm |access-date=6 August 2021 |work=USA Today |date=2011-05-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130901192748/http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2011-05-08-reagan-notes-book-brinkley_n.htm |archive-date=2013-09-01 |language=English}}

Literary references

Jean Paul's idyll The Life of Quintus Fixlein (1796) has the subtitle as Drawn from Fifteen Boxes of Paper Slips.{{cite book |last=Paul |first=Jean |date=2013 |orig-year=1796 |title=Leben des Quintus Fixlein, aus funfzehn Zettelkästen gezogen. Nebst einem Mustheil und einigen Jus de tablette. Geschichte meiner Vorrede zur zweiten Auflage des Quintus Fixlein |series=Werke: historisch-kritische Ausgabe |volume=VI, 1 |location=Berlin |publisher=de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-484-10917-9 |oclc=881295864 |doi=10.1515/9783110303711 |language=de}}
In the preface to the novel Penguin Island (1908) by Nobel laureate Anatole France, a scholar is drowned by an avalanche of multicolored index cards which formed a gigantic whirlpool streaming out of his overflowing card boxes.{{cite book |last1=France |first1=Anatole |author1-link=Anatole France |translator=Arthur William Evans |title=Penguin Island |date=1922 |orig-date=1909 |publisher=Dodd, Mead & Co. |location=New York |edition=8th |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=6UpWAvkPQaEC&pg=PR14 xiv–xv] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6UpWAvkPQaEC |chapter=Preface |isbn=978-0-7583-1755-1 |oclc=7340292}}
In chapter two of Robert M. Pirsig's philosophical novel Lila: An Inquiry into Morals (1991), the main character describes an index card system of notes he's keeping for a book. While the German word {{lang|de|Zettelkasten}} isn't used, the descriptor "slips" is used repeatedly (as opposed to index card which appears four times) and the system has the general form and function of a card file as commonly used by writers.
In Paper Machines (2002), Markus Krajewski's history of card catalogs ({{lang|de|Zettelkataloge}}) and card files ({{lang|de|Zettelkästen}}), as both thinking devices and precursors of today's computers, Krajewski draws connections to literary authors like Jonathan Swift, Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Heinrich Heine, Goethe, Jean Paul, Vladimir Nabokov, Arno Schmidt, and Nicholson Baker.{{cite book |last=Krajewski |first=Markus |date=2011 |orig-year=2002 |title=Paper Machines: About Cards & Catalogs, 1548–1929 |series=History and Foundations of Information Science |volume=3 |translator=Peter Krapp |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=The MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-01589-9 |oclc=698360129 |doi=10.7551/mitpress/9780262015899.001.0001 |jstor=j.ctt5hhmbf |language=en}}

References

Category:Note-taking

Category:Knowledge management