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Comments from Readers
by
Dan Butler
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Here are a few of the comments I received about my article on paper based address books vs. digital address books.
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"When I was at Vassar a half century ago, we were often asked to do Note
Topics. A special pad was available at the student bookstore with a
vertical red line an inch in on the left and another an inch down from the
top. Book reference, page #'s, biblio info in those margins. Then the
quote or concept was written in the body of the index-card-sized page.
One idea to the page. Then organize all of the pages, then create an
opening page citing the premise of the "note topic", then insert
appropriately transitional pages and a conclusion. Number them all in
sequence, do NOT type it up into a paper, hand it in with your
identification. Pretty good approach considering that my generation was
even new at the typewriter!
Love your newsletter. Thank you."
Betty B.
Carson City, NV US
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"I'm also old enough to remember -- and to miss -- card catalogs.
It seems you have read the article from the New Yorker many years ago,
which included the little tidbit about worn cards showing the most-popular
books or subjects.
One other thing that article pointed out is that, with many electronic
catalog hits sorted alphabetically by default, many people will miss books
that begin with any letter after D or L (or whatever). Same problem with
web searches: anything after the first page of hits, or maybe the first
three pages, will never appear, based on some algorithm's decision about
which are most relevant.
Interesting topic to raise. Thanks!"
Richard D.
Newton, Massachusetts US
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"Nice piece on the trade-offs involved in going from paper to digital. I'm
fairly computer savvy, but I still take notes on 5x8 cards for three
reasons: they're portable, easy to hold while I'm lecturing (I'm a college
English professor), and easy to rearrange. The main disadvantages of this system: notecards are not searchable and when you have a lot of them, they do take up storage space. The ideal solution would probably be a very small subnotebook; so far, though, I haven't found one that I can afford."
David W.
Greenville, NC US
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"I found your article hit a nerve. It made me start thinking about solutions. These days storage space is not a problem but retrieval is. I
thought of a couple of possible solutions for me. I use Outlook so the
notes area looks a useful depository for old address info with dates, a
simple cut and paste before I put in the new address. I use categories
extensively and usually view by category which makes it easier to find
people as I relate them more to the category they belong to than by any
other tag. Many people will drop into more than one category, friends my
also be business related or suppliers or belong to the same clubs that I
do so, which ever way I happen to be thinking when I look, I will find
them in the group I look in. This seems to be the main reason I stick with
Outlook rather than change to any other email program, I have not found
any that have such an easy and efficient way of doing this. The closest
seems to be Lotus Organiser but that has too many other restrictions. With about 2500 entries in my address book it was important to be able to find
people quickly. It also allowed me to quickly remove about 2250 when I
retired and move them into the archive. I keep one archive just for
addresses and one a year for emails. This makes X1 look an interesting
possibility but I find Outlook's advanced search reasonable if not the
fastest to find what I need.
I nearly always find a useful tip in TNPC Newsletter, keep it coming."
Bob R.
Hampshire, UK
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"My mother used to keep a piece of shirt cardboard next to the
phone, with the names, telephone numbers, and addresses of her
adult children, her friends, and others. Many of those numbers
were crossed out or overwritten.
There were two important things about it. One, she used it
faithfully. Two, it didn't get lost. It was still there when
she died. I can't say all of the names and addresses were fully
up-to-date, but it was as current as she could make it.
That's the problem I have today--keeping my address book,
whereever it is, up-to-date, and making sure that I backup the
data, so I don't lose it.
Many years ago I used one of those metal-clad pop-up
addressbooks, the ones with the alphabet down the side and a
sliding metal pointer. Slide the pointer to the letter you want,
press a bar at the bottom of the device, and the lid pops up,
showing the appropriate page. That was the only method I used to
keep names and addresses, and it worked well.
Then I moved to a rolodex, more flexible, but less convenient.
Out-of-date cards are out of sight, and out of sight is out of
mind. In business these days people change jobs often. You
learn that so and so is no longer at the Acme Company, but not
where they are now. So the quality of my rolodex data began to
deterioriate.
I also started experimenting with programs like ACT and Outlook.
When my boss moved to a new office, I copied the entire
contents of his Rolodex into an ACT database. But then there was
a crash, and the database got trashed. All the data was lost.
Today I struggle just to keep up. Sometimes I go to respond to
an e-mail from a client, only to discover that I haven't yet
copied at least their e-mail address into my contacts file. Then
when I copy the e-mail address, I have to go back to see if they
included an address and phone number, and if they did,
laboriously copy that information over. Do I want to just print
out the e-mail and copy from that, or try to switch between
screens, maybe only getting a little bit each time? Or do I
already have the address, only the name is spelled differently,
or in a different order?
We're all doing work that used to be performed by competent
office support staff. But now that we're "lean and mean", the
cost of things like keeping an address book up-to-date,
scheduling appointments and meetings, and making travel
arrangements seems to have been shifted to us"
Stan K.
Massachusetts, US
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"I have had an address book for years and then switched to a small Rolodex system. I can keep it up to date and also so many of those who do not have computers will always be there as in my computer. At least I have the addresses and phone numbers of all in both systems. I used to run a printout every so often but I moved and never have hooked my printer up. I keep 2 floppies for my addresses. I usually change them if I add several. This is usually once a week. I put wab1 on one and wab2 on the other but they both have the same info. I had trouble one time and one floppy didn't get all the info back in the wab so since then I use 2. So far the computer doesn't know the diff and exports all the info.
I am with you on the old address book. It really tells stories by the cross outs, additions etc. It is something for all to think about. Many a pic has been stored in the old address books."
Jim H.
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"Boy, did hit between the crosshairs! I felt the same way as you regarding that old, beat-up, stuffed-with-scrap-notes beloved old address book, but thought I was just too lazy to put it all in my pc. But you are so right in finding old memories and people within those worn pages. I know I would never take the time to turn on the pc, go to address book and alter or add entries. When I see a need in my old book, I attend to it right then, before I forget what I wanted to write. I find the dates of death beside old familiar names and let my mind wander awhile, something that just would not happen with digital records at all.
Nice essay and nice to know I am not weird just because I avoid using the pc for those things better left to the old way."
Sally T.
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"I liked your TNPC piece about the historical values in a paper address book. It reminded me of another benefit of an original written record: You better get it right before you commit it to paper.
I re-read an article I wrote for the school magazine back in the forties, and was amazed at how lucid I was, and about the excellent grammar, etc. Today I throw my ideas onto the screen somewhat haphazardly, knowing I can easily sort them out afterwards, correct the spelling and grammar and otherwise overcome the casual wordsmithing of the original. It seems to me that word processors don't encourage us to think carefully before we write; does that spill over into not thinking carefully before we speak?
Another thought: I use the Outline feature of Microsoft Word now and then. Even more it lets you throw thoughts randomly on the screen, then subsequently rearrange the items in a proper sequence and in degrees of dependence on other items. Rather like shuffling your index cards, don't you think? But away from the computer, I am slowly losing the talent of ordering my thoughts in a proper sequence. Like say, Dr Johnson."
David H.
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"AMEN! re address books; we have lost other things in the name of computing also.
**A book or pamphlet to read and follow when trying to solve a computer problem and not one that you need the computer to download - because the computer doesn't work! Or you can't got on to the internet ----
And I'm not anti - internet
Thanks"
Becky
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© 2004 Dan Butler
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