How I make digital reference notes

During the first week of Bob’s Master ZK cohort, some people, like Chris Evans, asked me how I make digital reference notes. So, here is a short walkthrough.

I used to struggle with digital reference notes. I highlighted a bunch of stuff, ending up with a pile of highlights, which was very hard to sift through.

I tried to solve this issue by giving a status tag, like "to process". This probably did more harm than good.

In my pursuit of a solution, I landed on Bob's method, which is a close reflection to Luhmann's way of taking reference notes. I use this method exclusively for hard copy books, since I prefer to have a slip of paper when reading hard copy books, no digital device in sight. I then convert this into a digital note, in Obsidian.

Here is an example:

But, most of my readings are either URLS (articles, posts, video's, etc.) or digital books/journal articles. So, I needed to find a way to make reference notes for this type of media, without being overloaded with highlights or 'to process' highlights.

I came across Chris Aldrich's hypothes.is (a web annotation tool, here https://hypothes.is/users/chrisaldrich). Here, he annotates and indexes his readings on the web. I was hooked. I started to highlight, annotate and tag my digital readings. I currently use two tools for this (I left hypothesis behind, but I still have a public url https://hypothes.is/users/M.AKilic50). For all URLS, I use the Obsidian web clipper (here is a link Obsidian Web Clipper). This obviously only works if you use Obsidian, but the principles still apply. For my pdfs (digital books or journal articles), I use Zotero (here is a link Zotero).

Here is an example from Obsidian (with the web clipper):

Here is an example from Zotero:

This gives me a similar benefit as the method of Luhmann. It allows me to quickly scan a note, by scanning the tags and/or annotations. Additionally, it creates an index, with all the tags I am making.

This system functions alongside (and within, as a compartment, like Bob explained) my zettelkasten. I mostly rely heavily on annotating and indexing reference notes. Hence why I haven't used my ZK regularly, in 5-6 months.