Category: Research

Using Evernote with Kindle Books

Via CNet, I received $10 to use on Kindle books.  I immediately realized that I could use a copy of Sheila Fitzpatrick’s Russian Revolution in order to brush up a bit before teaching the event this semester.  I’ve really enjoyed using the iPad to read and take notes on PDFs, but what had always held me back from turning to longer e-books for research was the difficulty in getting notes off the book and into Evernote, which I recently started using after getting fed up with the cumbersome note taking tools native to Zotero (still my preferred citation manager, however).  I still wish there was a way to simply capture the notes and send them directly to Evernote without leaving the iPad, but I did find this solution which is much more elegant than I expected would be possible.

Productivity Helpers

I’ve recently started reading both ProfHacker and GradHacker because I’m obsessed with trying out new digital research tools (a tendency not actually good for productivity, it should be said).  Today, Gradhacker provides a list of productivity helpers.  I’m particularly glad I checked out the post since, after clicking on the “Surviving the Lit Review” link (I thought it may be useful for the course I’m teaching this year requiring undergraduates to write a short review essay themselves, I cam across this fantastic post explaining how one can use Skim, a pdf annotator and viewer, with Scrivener, a writing program.  I have only recently started using both programs; both are excellent and I’m excited to try out a method of using them together.