My cousin isn't the least interested in the whole "names and classification" side of nature study. She couldn't care less whether in the spring the Blue-winged Warbler is an early or late arriver. Nonetheless, her pleasure in watching and knowing plants and animals is certainly no less than mine.
She keeps a notebook that's a hodgepodge of articles, poems, and illustrations clipped from magazines. On one page she's affixed an article about Spotted Cucumber Beetles, and right next to it there's a poem speaking of spring's "squealing, bawling new life." And from there the eye is drawn to one of her own snapshots of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird sipping red sugar-water from the feeder outside her kitchen window. Nowhere in her notebook is there a single list of plants or animals she's identified, or the use of a single scientific name.
A NATURE-NOTE EXAMPLE
The best Nature-notes are those you generate yourself -- notes about things you personally experience. Here's an example of a typical note from my own journal:
The other day Fred and I were supervising dusk when I thought I saw a yellowjacket swoop down on a line of fairly large, black ants, nab an ant, and fly away with it. Fred didn't see it so I figured I'd made a mistake, for who has ever heard of an insect preying on formic-acid filled ants? I went away without more ado, but then a bit later Fred called me back saying he'd seen a yellowjacket land on an ant with wings, break off the wings, sting the ant, and fly off with it. Then we sat and watched as several times a yellowjacket came buzzing the ant-lines, being very persnickety about which ants were chosen, and occasionally carrying off an ant.
There's not much more to say about that kind of scrabbook, other than that over the years it's provided my cousin with enormous pleasure as she put it together, revisited it from time to time, and certain people like myself have enjoyed thumbing through it, too.
The "personal encyclopedia" is a notebook filled with information that's interesting to you. The information is found in many places and organized so that you can easily find it again, and keep adding to it.
You are the only one who knows what interests you, so you judge what information you want to keep. Maybe something you find on the Internet fascinates you, so you print out the page. Now where do you put that page in your "personal encyclopedia" so you'll always be able to find it?
You might alphabetize it. If your information is about the behavior of the Little Brown Bat, then it would go under B.
Another neat system is one organized according to the classification system outlined on our "Pigeon-Holing Our Discoveries" page, in the "Names and Classification" section. In other words, the notes' subdivisions would coincide with the classification categories into which all living things are placed. Thus, plants would be in one part of the notebook, animals in another. Within the animal section, birds would be in one place, insects in another. Within the bird section, you might begin with the loon family, and continue with the grebe family. This system has the advantage of placing like kinds of information together, instead of having BEANS next to BEAVERS.
FUNGI
ANIMALS
At the right you see some suggested subdivisions for such an encyclopedia. You might also add sections on ECOLOGY, EVOLUTION, GEOLOGY... whatever turns you on.
If you keep your notes on a computer instead of in a notebook you may want to organize them in various folders or subdirectories on your computer's hard disk. Nowadays most computer users don't even know about forders or subdirectories, but surely all of them provide some way for the user to see how the computer's files (images, pages, etc.) are organized.
My Windows-based computer has something called "This PC." Not long ago it was called "My Computer." Who knows what it'll be called by the time you read this? Whatever it's called, when you use it, you should be able to see a map of your computer's files looking something like what's shown below:
You'll see that inside my Plants folder I have a keys folder, inside which is another folder called California. That folder is highlighted, so over on the right you can the folders and files present in the California folder. Folders are represented by folder icons, while files are represented by the "e" icon. The files in the California folder bear names of plant groups and contain identification keys in text format. Back in 2005 I visited California and while there downloaded identification keys from the Internet to help me name the plants I was finding, and those keys are stored here in my California folder.
Do you understand all that?
If you do, then you have a wonderful way of organizing your notes! If not, then you may want to study this folder and file business a little, because knowing about these things is a powerful tool when you need to organize your information on a computer.
In a way, my own Naturalist Newsletter archives constitute an organized, computer-based, nature-note system, one that I share with others via the Internet. You can see how I've organized years of notes by clicking on the above link and browsing some Newsletters.
Most of us nowadays also have presences on FaceBook, MySpace, and such. If you configure your profile and use the right keywords when setting up your pages at social networking groups, you'll attract others with similar interests in Nature. Before long you'll have your own group of friends who just can't wait to hear what birds you see this weekend, or how your efforts are going to save a local swamp. Any social networking group crystallized around a cause or a burning interest will always be more successful than those with nothing special to say at all!