Another organizational tool that’s important to have and use is the research log. A research log is an important tool to help organize and track your work. Research logs document details such as where you search, and what information has or has NOT been found. There’s nothing more frustrating than forgetting where you found a good resource or perhaps the citation for a key piece of data. The last thing you want to do is waste your precious time repeating inquiries. So, my advice to you is to document your work AS YOU GO in a research log to avoid such scenarios.
A research log can take any form or format that works for you – an Excel spreadsheet or a research notebook are both fine for this purpose. Create a system that is portable as you may travel in your research and flexible to accommodate your information. I have a few examples to show you but basically, you want to document your experience each time you conduct research.
Be sure to record:
the research question,
your strategy for answering the question including where/when/how you/with whom conducted the research,
any websites, libraries, archives, or other records repositories you visited and their contact information,
what was the result – whether you found the answer to your question or not, and
possible next steps for continuing to research the question.
Below are two examples of research logs. Again, you can use these or create something from scratch that works better for you.
For additional information about using research logs in your work and sample logs, visit FamilySearch WIKI.
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