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Systematic Indexing
Everybody feels the necessity of making notes, of keeping even a hasty memorandum of facts and opinions as they arise, because they may be used to advantage upon subsequent occasions. We make notes mentally too, for that is the only way to gather knowledge, and a well trained memory is always a great asset, but in these days of multifarious activity and ever increasing accumulations it will not do to trust to memory solely, we must needs keep some record by means of which we may aid or refresh our memory when there is occasion for it. Those who do not go to this trouble will readily admit that many valuable points are lost on this account, and in the usual pressure of business there is little chance of making up for what has been alldwed to slip by. There is no time like the present for doing what has to be done.
With a few casual notes daily we soon get an accumulation of useful information , and on careful examination we are impressed and encouraged by its possibilities . In time we may get together quite a stock of information . Occasion will arise when we shall have an opportunity of making practical use of it, or of verifying or rejecting some of it, and we shall begin to realise that a more judicious selection may be desirable. Experience alone can guide us in this.
We shall begin to see also that its increasing bulk calls for some organisation , so as to deal with our whole stock systematically, at any rate to make access possible ; and given an efficient organisation , it will soon become apparent that by systematic application of our individual energy-by exercising our energy on the basis of our stock of information-tangible results could be obtained ; and that is the main consideration, for we are not giving ourselves a deal of trouble merely for the pleasure thereof. If our object is pecuniary gain, then we call it business, if our object is intellectual gain, we call it study or research. Thus the philosopher, the scientist and the business man have this in common : each applies individual energy to available information in order to attain the object each has in view.
With a few casual notes daily we soon get an accumulation of useful information , and on careful examination we are impressed and encouraged by its possibilities . In time we may get together quite a stock of information . Occasion will arise when we shall have an opportunity of making practical use of it, or of verifying or rejecting some of it, and we shall begin to realise that a more judicious selection may be desirable. Experience alone can guide us in this.
We shall begin to see also that its increasing bulk calls for some organisation , so as to deal with our whole stock systematically, at any rate to make access possible ; and given an efficient organisation , it will soon become apparent that by systematic application of our individual energy-by exercising our energy on the basis of our stock of information-tangible results could be obtained ; and that is the main consideration, for we are not giving ourselves a deal of trouble merely for the pleasure thereof. If our object is pecuniary gain, then we call it business, if our object is intellectual gain, we call it study or research. Thus the philosopher, the scientist and the business man have this in common : each applies individual energy to available information in order to attain the object each has in view.
293 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1911
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About the author
J. Kaiser
3 booksJulius Otto Kaiser, Librarian of the Tariff Commission and previously Librarian of the Philadelphia Commercial Museum
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