Files where the base of the content is work of others. File names end with “(by [author])” or “(from [source])“. Sometimes called “literature” or “bibliographic” notes by others
Types of reference notes (tagged as such):
- Articles and websites: Usually clipped using Obsidian Web Clipper. My Obsidian Web Clipper templates remove any highlights from the source so I can do my own
- Emails: Snippets manually copied and pasted into my vault.
- Currently trying to find ways to Connect communications to vault and Clip emails into vault
- Books and PDFs: Snippets manually copied and pasted into my vault.
- Currently looking for Reading tools to automate
- Transcript: A live conversation between people, like a podcast, or a voice memo to myself
- Visual: Movies, TV, videos; can coincide with a transcript, or just have my thoughts within
- AI: Written by an AI tool, often coinciding with Research files or Project files
To add my own thoughts or ideas in-line with passages that sparked them, I add J: and Surround with curly brackets, i.e. {J: ... }
- That way, when I revisit the clipping, I immediately know what is source material and what is my commentary
- Sometimes, as I read, I delete parts of the article that I don’t need. So what remains at the end are my notes and the parts of the article that prompted them
- I add “#inbox” to the line if it is something I want to be sure I come back to
A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden (by Maggie Appleton) is a good example