Archiving WW magazine articles

[Monte Milanuk]

I've been receiving a number of woodworking magazines for a year or so now, and they are starting to pile up! Getting to the point where I remember seeing an article or something on such-n-such, but then spend considerable time trying to go back thru and actually *find* what the heck it was I was looking for.

I've considered thinning down the subscriptions some, as a couple of the magazines seem to do a lot of reprints and fluff articles, but every time I start thinking about that, I pick up one and the readers tips section (Tricks of the Trade, Methods of Work, etc.) is often alone worth the cover price to me.

I've considered a variety of options, including a file cabinet/folders and cutting out pages and organizing them according to topics, authors, etc., using a scanner and saving them on hard drive or CD, etc.

Any other ideas/suggestions?

Thanks,

Monte

[Don Abele]

Monte, it's funny you should post this. Over the past week or so I have been going through my massive stacks of magazines (some dating back to 1996) and cutting out the articles from them that interest me. The "fluff" that's left over goes to recycling. I'm tired of them taking up too much space and having to pack and move them every time I transfer (and the weight they add to my move). Not to mention that I could never find anything that I wanted.

I currently have a stack of articles almost 3 inches high!!! That's a pretty significant reduction, especially if you consider that the "fluff" has taken up about 6 - 35 gallon trash bags so far!!! Not sure how I'll ulitimately file them (or maybe scan them), but this is better for now.

Well, back to clipping articles...

Be well,

Doc

[Michael Stafford]

I have been, for many years now, taken apart my magazines at the end of each year. By taken apart I remove the center staple and cut out each article and or plan that I am interested in even moderately. Then they are filed in fanfold folders in my woodworking file cabinet. I have one for clocks, boxes, tables, shop hints, finishing tips, etc. etc. etc. When I get really ambitious I transfer them to notebooks so that they are easier to find. The only problem with this system is I have to remember that I have a plan for something when I want to build it. Anal retentive?

For instance, this year for Christmas I decided I wanted to build clocks and actually was able to find my file which had more than 20 clock plan ideas. I actually built clocks from my stash of plans. :D

[Monte Milanuk]

That sounds about like what I had in mind (even if I scan stuff, it'll be heavily sorted by folders). The one catch, that I don't know a good way around, is where I've got a number of articles that may be on building say, a desk, cabinet, whatever, and also have side-pane articles on specific techniques, etc., and often they are situated where cutting them out would cut out part of the next page of the plans. Guess scanning might make that part a little easier. That, and I can crop out all the B.S. advertisements!

Thanks,

Monte

[Chris Padilla]

Some of the mags include indexes. Those are the one to be aware of so you can look stuff up and hopefully "find that one thing you recalled seeing a ways back."

[Brian Hale]

If it was me, i'd use my digital camera. Take a pic of what you want to keep, sort them on your hard drive and burn to CD's as the file folders get up to about 600mb.


Brian :)

[Christine Tiede]

Hey Monte-
Although I still keep my WW magazines, I have begun two systems of noting any plans or articles which I feel I'll want to look at again. I take a recipe card (the bigger ones), pop a title on it (ie: Clocks). Then, I list the article information: Magazine, Month, Article Title, and Page number. I keep my file cards in alphabetical order (by title) in a recipe card box.

My other system is using my scanner. I scan the article or tip which interests me, put it into a folder on my computer, then save it onto a CD which I've labelled for WW. (by grouping the articles by subject, it makes them easier to find.)

Christine

[Jim Young]

I'm the same way, so many magazines that it takes me for ever to find that certain article. I don't want to throw away any magazine or cut out articles since I like having the paper reference and in time my tastes change. If I were to cut out only what I like now I would be getting rid of something that I might like in the future.

I have thought about going through each magazine and making my own index. This would of course take lot's of time.