# Goutor, *Card-File System of Note-Taking*, 1980 > [!cite] > Goutor, Jacques. *The Card-File System of Note-Taking*. Approaching Ontario’s Past, 3. Ontario Historical Society, 1980. Internet Archive. [http://archive.org/details/cardfilesystemof0000gout](http://archive.org/details/cardfilesystemof0000gout). > [!summary] Summary: > - introduction to, and overview of, the card-file system of note-taking > - a helpful focus upon notetaking with a historical/genealogical context > - includes practical examples of card-file cards. --- ‘For most historians, doing research is not only the most time-consuming part of their task, but also in many ways the most enjoyable. Few will deny a feeling of pleasure in coming into intimate contact with some part of the past, the thrill of discovering that very piece of evidence which makes the picture complete.’ [[Goutor, The Card-File System of Note-Taking, 1980|(Goutor 1980, 8)]] ^c568e5 ‘\[…] the absence of a piece of evidence which might contain the key to a delicate matter is clearly worthy of note, since it may in itself constitute what might be called a negative fact.’ [[Goutor, The Card-File System of Note-Taking, 1980|(Goutor 1980, 29)]] ^ec92b0 ‘A further assumption is that this \[one’s research] is not an activity undertaken for its own sake, but for the ultimate purpose of constructing some sort of final project, be it a community history, a biography or a genealogy. Thus the process is to be viewed not only from the standpoint of its efficiency as a device for *gathering* information, but as well as a means of *organizing* and *storing* that information, and eventually of *retrieving* it when the time comes to assemble the narrative.’ [[Goutor, The Card-File System of Note-Taking, 1980|(Goutor 1980, 3)]] ^8be873 ‘\[…] the process is to be viewed not only from the standpoint of its efficiency as a device for *gathering* information, but as well as a means of *organizing* and *storing* that information, and eventually of *retrieving* it when the time comes to assemble the narrative.’ [[Goutor, The Card-File System of Note-Taking, 1980|(Goutor 1980, 3)]] ^61d8a0 ‘The aim should be to develop a system which results in notes that are clear, concise yet complete, and above all easily manipulated.’ [[Goutor, The Card-File System of Note-Taking, 1980|(Goutor 1980, 7)]] ^89742d Notes should be clear to read — and contain one piece of information per note. [[Goutor, The Card-File System of Note-Taking, 1980|(Goutor 1980, 28)]] ^d5f07f This may feel unnecessary, but ‘the eventual savings of time made possible by increased efficiency in handling, classification, and eventually in retrieval of the information from the file, will more than compensate’ for the extra effort. [[Goutor, The Card-File System of Note-Taking, 1980|(Goutor 1980, 28)]] ^3d2939 ‘The smaller the note, the easier it is to classify’. [[Goutor, The Card-File System of Note-Taking, 1980|(Goutor 1980, 6)]] ^49790a ‘ … all notes should be clear, consistent, complete and accurate. The need for *clarity* is self-evident; it should be possible, simply by looking at a card, to tell exactly what source the note came from, what sort of note it is and what it refers to. ==One might say in fact that each note should have a life of its own, so that it can stand independently of every other one in the file.== This life should come from (1) its identity—an indication of the source; (2) its contents—a quotation, a summary, etc…; and (3) its eventual purpose—an indication of how it might fit into the mosaic—to be indicated by the coding.’ [[Goutor, The Card-File System of Note-Taking, 1980|(Goutor 1980, 28)]] ^2ba359 Accuracy, when note-taking, is paramount. You want to write your notes once—and not to need to fact-check them when using them later. [[Goutor, The Card-File System of Note-Taking, 1980|(Goutor 1980, 29)]] ^ba2e01 What you’ve written should be double-checked at the time of writing. [[Goutor, The Card-File System of Note-Taking, 1980|(Goutor 1980, 29)]] ^fb15d6 ‘If one thinks of note-taking as the sole and essential link between the sources and the mosaic, it then becomes clear that the factual correctness of the final product depends entirely upon the reliability of the transmission.’ [[Goutor, The Card-File System of Note-Taking, 1980|(Goutor 1980, 29)]] ^2fd96d ‘For if the system calls for techniques which require lengthy contemplation and complex manipulation of each individual note, one may eventually find that “the system” becomes an all-consuming end in itself. If each note requires five minutes of the researcher’s time for \[…] consultation of the pre-arranged list of code words, and so on, then the moment has probably come to return to the basics of note-taking..’ [[Goutor, The Card-File System of Note-Taking, 1980|(Goutor 1980, 33)]] ^6df0e2 ‘In developing the mechanics of a note-taking system, one further criterion should be kept in mind—comfort. It may seem odd to mention this as a significant part of research, yet much can be said in its favour. Each researcher has some particular way of going about his work which he finds more productive, more comfortable. It may involve such simple things as preferring a certain kind of pen for note-taking. ==The essential point to keep in mind is that as long as the basic guidelines are respected, there is no reason why one should not go about the work in a manner which is as painless as possible, given the often physically demanding nature of the endeavour==.’ [[Goutor, The Card-File System of Note-Taking, 1980|(Goutor 1980, 28)]] ^b027f4 ‘After all, the ultimate purpose of the exercise is *not* to produce beautiful notes displaying the researcher’s technical prowess, but rather *useable* notes to build the mosaic.’ [[Goutor, The Card-File System of Note-Taking, 1980|(Goutor 1980, 33]] ^a6a1ab A good note-taking methodology can be hard work to adopt. That said, the mechanical effort involved is worth it, not only because of the end result, but because ‘it is often the well-established, self-actuating \[note-taking] process which prevents the researcher from becoming careless’ when working on more tedious sources. [[Goutor, The Card-File System of Note-Taking, 1980|(Goutor 1980, 12)]] ^9bec12 While aiming to keep notes relevant to your current research, avoid overcorrecting into tunnel vision. You might miss something important—or ‘overlook the full range of possibilities offered by a given source’. [[Goutor, The Card-File System of Note-Taking, 1980|(Goutor 1980, 5)]] ^1a2926 The card-file system of note-taking helps reveal gaps in your research. [[Goutor, The Card-File System of Note-Taking, 1980|(Goutor 1980, 7)]] ^3bbe24 \[Note-taking] is in effect a filtering process through which the researcher not only reduces a mass of materials to manageable size, but also selects from that mass what he thinks may eventually prove useful for his project. One should note that the quality of the filter is of great importance since it determines, for all practical purposes, the contents of the researcher’s notes.’ [[Goutor, The Card-File System of Note-Taking, 1980|(Goutor 1980, 3)]] ^2a728b ‘If the act of making notes is—by the sheer act of selecting what to record vs what to discard—a form of filtering, then the nature of that filter is going to likewise determine the shape of your final products.’ [[Goutor, The Card-File System of Note-Taking, 1980|(Goutor 1980, 4)]] ^75511f ‘If one thinks of the final product of the historian’s labours as a mosaic made up of dozens of separate bits of information bound together by a narrative (or a genealogical chart), it becomes clear that ==in order to compose the picture, it must be possible to move the pieces about in order to fit them into meaningful patterns==. It is best to visualize this process as a physical one wherein individual note-cards are shifted from one stack to another until the proper fit is obtained.’ [[Goutor, The Card-File System of Note-Taking, 1980|(Goutor 1980, 6–7)]] ^159c82 ‘Anyone who has carried out a research project from its original conception to its final form would probably agree with the proposition that, in the final analysis, the historian is only as good as his card-file.’ [[Goutor, The Card-File System of Note-Taking, 1980|(Goutor 1980, 36)]] ^c101bb