Dalkir (2005) defines information filtering as the process by which one can “go through an enormous amount of information to find the small portion that is relevant to us” (p. 238). With the vast amount of information we all have access to today, it becomes imperative to develop our own personal information filtering process. For me personally, I use different approaches information filtering processes—one for work and one for school.
For work, I rely upon consistent electronic file structures to enable easy retrieval of information. This structure is used for files as well as for email (including the use of rules to file emails automatically into the correct folders). I also use color coding of my calendar and any physical file folders to more easily differentiate between clients and projects.
For school, I rely upon EBSCO alerts and an AskSam database that I started in my second quarter at Walden (Seaside software, n.d.). To stay abreast of new articles related to my research focus, I’ve set up a number of EBSCO alerts that are automatically emailed to me; I also have them set up in a Firefox page via RSS feeds so that I can quickly preview the articles as they arrive. For my research database, I’ve applied a number of the concepts from this program. I first spent time defining the taxonomy and structure for my database; this involved defining the key categories and search terms I anticipated using when needing to retrieve information from my research. With key words and categories defined, I then began to enter all my journal articles, class notes, and assignments. The most critical thing I’ve learned is to stay disciplined with this entry process, e.g., using the week between quarters to update my database based on the previous quarter. Now finishing my sixth quarter, I’m already finding my database to be an incredibly useful tool for quickly locating the article or reference I may recall based on just a portion of the title or a quote. It has also been very useful in supporting my further research and writing when I need to search the over 400 entries in my database to see how many related hits I have on a particular topic.
References:
Dalkir, K. (2005). Knowledge management in theory and practice. Burlington, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Seaside software. (n.d.). askSam. Retrieved May 6, 2008 from http://www.asksam.com/brochure.asp
- Robin
Copyright Robin Donnan 2008. All Rights Reserved.
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