Folders vs categories

In older versions of Biblioscape, the relationship between folders and references was many-to-many. That meant a folder contained many references and a reference could reside in more than one folder. Starting from version 7, the relationship between folders and references has become one-to-many. That means a folder contains many references, but a reference can only reside in one folder. In version 7, Categories have replaced folders to handle the many-to-many relationship between subjects and references. Some users may ask: if categories have replaced folders to handle the many-to-many relationship, why are folders still needed?

File cabinet analogy 

Think of your Biblioscape database as a file cabinet: there are 5 kinds of folder in this cabinet. Each kind of folder is made of different material that corresponds to references, notes, tasks, charts, and categories. Think of your references, notes, tasks, and charts as documents inside a folder. In the categories folder there are many labels of different colors. When collecting references, notes, etc. you first put them into a folder. That is the place where the record belongs. Next, you may want to put a label on the reference or note record to remind you about something. Later, you may put more labels about different things on a record. When needed, you may pull out all references that are labeled, for example, "green" and read them. This corresponds to a search in Biblioscape based on category. At other times, you may simply take a folder out and go through each record in that folder. This corresponds to folder browsing in Biblioscape. 

Project, subject and classification

Now you have an idea about how records are organized in a Biblioscape database. The next question might be: what information should be organized by folder and what information should be organized by category. The general rule is to organize your projects with folders, while using categories to classify your records by different subjects. For example, if you are a professor of life sciences and you have to manage 3 projects, namely (a) about HIV protease inhibitor, (b) a NIH grant about anti-cancer nucleosides, and (c) a NSF grant about boronic acid, you should create 3 references folders called something like "HIV Protease", "Nucleosides", and "Boronic Acid". Later on, you can tag references in each folder with categories. For example, you can create a group of category items about the different types of HIV protease inhibitors, and another group of category items about HIV protease sub-types. All these category items can be used to tag your references in the "HIV Protease" folder. You can use categories to classify records in many different dimensions.

Pick the right tool

Folders and categories are designed for different purposes. Since they are both organizing tools with a tree-like structure, it can be confusing for a new user to decide which one to use. Here are some general rules:

• Big vs small: Folders are used to organize records according to the big picture. For example, you can create several references folders, each for a big project of yours. Categories, however, are used for fine-grained classification of your records in many dimensions. For example, under each big project, you may want to sub-divide records by person, location, subject, event, etc.
• Exclusive vs inclusive: A folder holds records that do not appear in another folder. A category can be used to tag a record that has already been tagged by other categories.
• Single module vs cross module: A folder can only contain records from a single module, i.e. references, notes, tasks, or charts. A category can be used to tag records from any module. For example, you can create a category called "@home" and use it to tag references, notes, and tasks that needs to be done when you are at home.
• Formal vs informal: Folders should be in a well-thought-out structure. It is the backbone of information organization in Biblioscape. Tags are informal, spontaneous, and personal. This is especially true for a shared database. All users should follow rules agreed upon by the whole group when creating folders. But users should be allowed to tag records the way they see fit. Eash user can store personal tags in their own category folder.

 

Organizing by folders

All your information objects in Biblioscape are organized under a single folder tree. There are several kinds of folders for organizing different types of information objects. They are Domain folders, References folders, Notes folders, Tasks folders, Charts folders, Categories folders

Domain folders

The yellow domain folders are usually at the top level. You may have two domain folders one called Work and the other one called Personal. All your references folders and notes folders about your work are under one domain folder, while all references and notes folders about your hobby projects are under the personal domain folder. Some users may have one domain folder about research and another one about teaching. Domain folders should not be used to specify research projects, they are best organized by categories. Domain folders should be created with caution. In a physical world, a domain folder is like the file cabinet. A file cabinet can have many subject folders. You may only have a few file cabinets designated to store totally unrelated things.

Folders and search folders

All other folder types are designed to store only one type of information objects. For example, you can not put a note under a references folder. Different kinds of folders may reside under a single domain folder. For example, under the Teaching domain folder, there may be a references folder about one class and another notes folder about a different class. For references, notes, and tasks, etc. a folder represents a physical location. A place where an object belongs. An information object like a reference or a note may have many functions, properties, and uses which can be best managed by categories. But it has only one place it resides which is a folder. The folder name is actually one of the properties of an information object. But there is another type of folder which its name is not part of an information object's properties. They are called search folders. When you define a frequently used query, you may want to keep it. So you won't have to re-define the query next time you use it. You can then save the query as a search folder. So a search folder is just a query. It will includes any information objects that satisfy the saved query. For example, you can have a search folders that include all references about a certain subject published by a certain publisher. When there is a new reference added to your database that satisfy the query condition, it will automatically show up in that search folder. You don't have to put it there. Search folders are indicated by a special icon in the search folder column.

Folders and link folders

As your records collection grows, there may be a need to put a record in more than one folder. This is not possible with a regular folder because a record can only reside in one folder. But you can create a virtual folder called link folder. A link folder doesn't contain any records. It only contains links to your records. When you click on a link folder, all the records linked to it will be retrieved and it looks just like a regular folder. On the folder pane, a link icon will be displayed in the last column. Link folder can be used as a handy tool to organize your records. For example, if you need to create a list of all the references for a new report, you can just create a link folder. Then drag and drop references from other places to this link folder. The references you dragged are not moved to this link folder. Biblioscape just create a link. So all those records can be retrieved easily.

PIM structures - hierarchies or tags

Hierarchies or tags 

I found this article at zoot forum http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ZootForum/message/10195. There are some interesting points made about information management. I will first copy part of this post. I will then explain how Biblioscape is designed to meet the challenge.

Benefits of Hierarchical Structure

• People like hierarchical structures (items within files within folders) because they give information a sense of location and sequence.
• Hierarchies tend to work best when tailored to an individual's personal needs.

Problems with Hierachies

• Complex hierarchies are hard to construct (takes time and thought), and are dependent on purpose.
• The appropriateness of hierarchies and sequence of items can both matter (year/month/day and Sunday, Monday, ...)
• They break down semantically as they grow more complex.
• Different people use different terms for similar things (Tasks, Actions, and ToDos; Notes, Memos, Items).
• Hierarchies tend to grow messy, with too many layers and folders, too many "random" or "misc" folders, and too many items stuffed into folders that poorly match the item.
• Difficult to quickly reorganize for an ad hoc purpose (takes lots of time)
• Require placing items into appropriate locations (takes time)
• Rigidity of the parent/child model (many items could usefully go more than one folder)

Benefits of Tags (Categories, Keywords, Attributes, Facets)

• Tags allow searches to locate items anywhere in the database
• Tags allow searches to group items together quickly based on the tags.

Problems with Tags (Categories, Keywords, Attributes, Facets)

• By themselves tags provide little sense of location or sequence relative to the larger pool of data. (The databases feel chaotic.)
• Tags have to be added if not inherent in the data (takes time).
• Data thrown into a non-hierarchical structure with tags omitted is like throwing items into a giant bin. You forget what's in there, and, unless you get lucky with search terms, you never see it again unless you go through the bin item by item (which takes time, especially if useless items are in the bin). So ideally, tags should be added to the item early on, such as when the item is placed in the database (takes time).
• Hard to create good tags (issues of consistency, synonyms, etc., so takes thought)
• Tags multiple and become chaotic.

An ideal PIM might:

• Allow both a hierarchical structure and ways of tagging individual items.
• Allow items to be assigned (linked, cloned) to multiple folders in a hierarchy.
• Allow items found in a search to easily be assigned (linked, cloned) to a new folder.
• Allow for the automation of certain tasks, such as folder assignments and keyword indexing.

Biblioscape is designed to do both

From my personal experience, a sense of location is very important in information management. I guess this comes from our real world experiences. Every physical thing around us all belong to some place. When I use an information manager that uses tagging system alone, I quickly feel lost. A piece of information I put into the system no longer has an anchor and I start to have a hard time remember it and find it. I have one big problem with hierarchies, that is the need to organize items for a different purpose. Sometimes, a piece of information is valuable in more than one situations. For example, I collected an article about president Bush's visit to New Orleans after the hurricane. I put it under a folder called "Katrina". But later, I start to work on another project about Louisiana politics and this article mentions corruption in New Orleans. Obviously, we find the limitation of folders because an item can only be in one folder. It is the time to use categories. You can create a category called "Louisiana politics" and drag that item to this category. In Biblioscape, categories are organizaed in hierarchies too. So you get the benefit of both methods. When there is a need to organize existing pieces of information in another dimension, you can do it by creating new categories.

It all depends on the amount of information you need to handle

For most people, folders alone are good enough to handle their collections. When you have only a few hundred records, you pretty much remember their places. Flexibility produces confusion and learning curve for new users. That's why I recommend new users just stick with folders and not be bothered with categories. When your database becomes large with thousands of records, or you start to have the needs to organize items in more than one way, you should then look into the categories module.