A couple of years ago now I went to a training day about the use of NVivo software as a possible research tool. I wanted something that would allow me to store a big and diverse range of material that would be easy to search and could be stored simultaneously under multiple categories.
Apart from the fact that NVivo is really expensive (I think at the time my Centre would have had to pay about $2000 for me to use it), I soon realised that it was far too clunky and complicated for my purposes. What I’ve done instead is used free WordPress software to create a private research blog. And it works a treat.
Anytime I take notes about material or cut-and-paste from online text, I throw it into a post on my research blog. I then tag it accordingly and put it into multiple research categories as I please. I have the lion’s share of my research for my book on the rowdy late nineteenth-century youth called larrikins (due to be published by the University of Queensland press in Jan 2012) in an easily-accessible online repository.
Does anyone else use blogging software like this? If so, I’d be interested to hear how you find it.
That is a fantastic idea! I might just try it and attach it to my future writing blog (to hold the research for 19th century Brooklyn stuff, since that is when and where the mystery novel takes place)
Great idea! (I assume its a private blog though.) Looking forward to your book!