Organization of Personal Information

1. Organization of Personal Information Libby Livingston INLS 285 Spring 2013

2. These are the most common tasks I find myself performing as a student. Each task requires different types of information. TASKS

3. For example, to research papers and complete readings, I usually need to find scholarly literature like PDFs from the library’s catalog. To study, I need notes from my instructors’ lectures. INFORMATION TYPE

4. I organize my school folders on my computer in a way that makes the most sense to me as a UNC student. • Can’t remember a particular course number? • I can probably remember what semester I took the class! • 04 = fourth semester • Course name/number within each semester folder STRUCTURE

5. I organize my school folders on my computer in a way that makes the most sense to me as a UNC student. • Can’t remember a particular course number? • I can probably remember what semester I took the class! • 04 = fourth semester • Course name/number within each semester folder Lecture notes Tasks Studying STRUCTURE

6. I organize my school folders on my computer in a way that makes the most sense to me as a UNC student. • Can’t remember a particular course number? • I can probably remember what semester I took the class! • 04 = fourth semester • Course name/number within each semester folder PDFs Lecture notes Tasks Studying Reading STRUCTURE

7. I organize my school folders on my computer in a way that makes the most sense to me as a UNC student. • Can’t remember a particular course number? • I can probably remember what semester I took the class! • 04 = fourth semester • Course name/number within each semester folder Folder for research notes, papers, etc. PDFs Lecture notes Tasks Studying Reading Writing STRUCTURE

8. Academic v Personal School items Personal items Tasks Managing images Writing Managing email Types of information Images I’ve produced Stories, code, other text documents Communication from others Structure Images are organized according to a hybrid structure (hierarchical and topical) Text documents are hierarchical Email is different, it has only one layer of organization (topical) • Tasks • Research • Reading • Writing • Types of information • Articles, books • Lecture content • Assignments I have written • Structure • Organized by semester, class, information type

9. INFORMATION TYPE

10. I organize my email by subject. This is a topical organization scheme. STRUCTURE

11. Personal documents on my computer are organized in a hierarchical structure (Something I learned from SILS) STRUCTURE

12. Images are organized using a hybrid structure in which photos are organized chronologically, art is organized hierarchical and animated GIFs are organized by subject. STRUCTURE

13. My personal digital information is organized in different ways. I use a hierarchical organization structure for my text documents and a topical organization scheme for my email (which I learned in INLS 101) My images are not arranged as logically, they incorporate hierarchical, chronological, and topical organizations in a hybrid. “Organization systems are composed of organization schemes and organization structures. An organization scheme defines the shared characteristics of content items and influences the logical grouping of those items. An organization structure defines the types of relationships between content items and groups.” -Morville & Rosenfeld, 2006 Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, 3rd ed.

14. How much space does all this take? Physical Space Digital Space 43% of the space used up in my computer is school related (2.75GB) 57% is personal (3.65GB) • My school related objects are confined to my desk. Papers and books stay in the drawers, and my laptop holds my readings, typed notes, and writing. Keeping as much school-related information digital as I can enables me to use up only a small portion of my physical space. My digital space is also occupied by fewer academic items than personal, but the ratio is closer.

15. What works? What doesn’t? (+) (-) My images require more effort to navigatebecause they are organized using several different strategies. If I wanted others to easily use my structure, I would certainly need to restructure it in a more consistent way. • My text documents are the easiest for others to use. • My email is also organized logically. • I am used to these systems, so I like them.