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| Notes | |
|---|---|
| Name | Notes |
| Type | Document |
Notes Notes are concise records created to capture information, observations, or ideas for later retrieval and use. They appear across scholarly, professional, and personal contexts and intersect with practices in libraries, archives, journalism, and academia.
Notes take many forms including margin annotations, lecture summaries, research annotations, meeting minutes, field logs, and personal memos. Examples appear in the manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci, the notebooks of Marie Curie, the field journals kept during the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and the laboratory notebooks of James Watson and Francis Crick. Genre distinctions include handwritten notebooks used by Charles Darwin, typographic marginalia in editions of William Shakespeare, and computerized snippets stored in platforms such as Evernote or Microsoft OneNote. Variants include shorthand tracts employed by secretaries to Winston Churchill, diplomatic memos at the Treaty of Versailles, and reconnaissance annotations in reports from the Battle of Gettysburg.
The practice of note-taking traces to antiquity with scribal collation in Library of Alexandria traditions, commonplace books of the Renaissance, and the scrapbooks of the Enlightenment salon culture. Scholarly systems evolved through the contributions of figures like John Locke's commonplace book guidance, the indexing innovations of Melvil Dewey, the minute-books of Benjamin Franklin, and archival reforms at institutions such as the British Library and the National Archives and Records Administration. Printing and typefounding innovations from Johannes Gutenberg influenced marginalia culture, while the rise of universities like University of Bologna and University of Oxford standardized lecture shorthand used by students of Thomas Aquinas and later by scholars influenced by the University of Paris.
Notation systems range from medieval glosses used in manuscripts of Dante Alighieri to the Cornell Note-Taking System popularized at Cornell University. Scientific notation practices reflect standards in publications of the Royal Society and in laboratory logs kept by researchers at institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. Legal shorthand and stenography derive from methods promulgated by inventors like Samuel Morse and stenographers employed by the United States Senate. Formatting conventions include pagination systems used by librarians at the Library of Congress and citation-oriented marginalia aligned with style guides such as the Chicago Manual of Style and the APA Publication Manual.
Notes serve functions including evidence capture for historians at archives like the National Archives (UK), data recording in fieldwork for anthropologists associated with the Smithsonian Institution, decision logs for executives at corporations such as IBM and General Electric, and rehearsal prompts for performers linked to the Metropolitan Opera. In law practice, notes underpin case preparation in chambers of the International Criminal Court and memoranda drafted for the Supreme Court of the United States. In journalism, reporters for outlets like The New York Times and the BBC rely on shorthand notes from interviews, court proceedings, and press conferences at venues like Westminster Hall. In science, bench notes in labs at CERN and field logs from expeditions by the Royal Geographical Society document reproducibility and provenance.
Research on note-taking spans cognitive psychology studies by scholars at Stanford University and Yale University and pedagogical frameworks implemented in programs at Columbia University Teachers College and the University of California, Berkeley. Debates juxtapose handwritten methods used in seminars at Oxford University against laptop note-taking trends in lectures at University of Cambridge, citing memory research by psychologists such as Daniel Kahneman and educational theorists like John Dewey. Strategies like concept mapping influenced by Joseph D. Novak and active recall techniques promoted in curricula at Khan Academy and Coursera shape instructional design in schools overseen by ministries such as the United Kingdom Department for Education.
Digital note ecosystems include platforms developed by companies like Evernote Corporation, features in Microsoft Office and Google Workspace, and open-source projects hosted by communities affiliated with the Apache Software Foundation. Collaborative notes power workflows in organizations using Slack (software), Atlassian products like Confluence (software), and research data capture at centers such as the Allen Institute for AI. Versioning, metadata, and search leverage technologies from Elasticsearch and cloud services by Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform. Standards for digital preservation reference guidelines from the International Council on Archives and initiatives such as the Digital Preservation Coalition.
Notes may carry evidentiary weight in proceedings before tribunals like the International Court of Justice or in inquiries by bodies such as the United States Congress. Chain-of-custody, custody logs, and retention schedules are governed by statutes like the Freedom of Information Act and regulations enforced by agencies including the Securities and Exchange Commission. Archival appraisal, accessioning, and conservation practices are applied by institutions such as the National Archives (UK), the Library of Congress, and the Smithsonian Institution to preserve notebooks of figures from George Washington to Ada Lovelace.
Category:Documentation