Organizing Your Life with Evernote

For the past year I have been using an online organizational tool called Evernote to put my work and personal life in order and I can now say that this tool, whether used on my desktop or with the app on my iPad or Android phone, has become so invaluable I’m not sure what I did without it. There are many ways that Evernote helps me stay on task and compiles my random thoughts and notes, but I am going to focus on how I use Evernote as a children’s librarian. I use the keyword tagging, notebook organization, and searching tools to put the following ideas in use:

• While browsing in bookstores I take pictures of the covers of children’s and teen books (or the ISBN’s) with my phone and upload them to my Evernote app so I can access these titles for possible consideration in the library’s collection when back at the library.

• I clip ideas for crafts, games, and programs from blog postings or parts of websites, including pictures associated with those ideas.

• I type my notes for every meeting I attend into Evernote and can look back at any point for what was discussed on a certain topic by using the keyword search. I also take pictures of notes that have been written on a whiteboard and can use the word-recognition feature to search within the handwritten notes.

• Within all of my notes, I create checklists of to-do’s and can search for both finished and pending tasks.

• Conferences have never been easier to manage with all of the information I need in one place for easy access to my flight information, hotel reservations, restaurants I want to try, conference session notes, etc. Even tracking expenses during conferences is simple- I take pictures of my receipts and submit them electronically.

• I keep my contacts list always accessible by scanning in business cards which makes them searchable by any words on the card.

Since I have access to Evernote wherever I am through the mobile app, I can always log ideas or inspirations that come to me at any time. I would love to hear if other children’s librarians are using this resource and what other ideas you have come up with!

Jennifer Salas
Youth Services Coordinator
Martin County Library System