theta_sigma
New member
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« on: February 03, 2012, 04:09:40 PM » |
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My apologies if this topic has already been covered. Also, it's a rather trivial question, I suppose, so my apologies for that, as well. Anyway, I'm a first year grad student in English lit, and I'm wondering whether I should invest in print subscriptions to some of the leading journals in my subfield (early modern lit). They seem relatively reasonable in price (a yearly subscription to Shakespeare Quarterly, for example, would cost only $37). Of course, I can access most everything through my university's library, so maybe I should just do that. What do you all think?
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fayefaye
number one
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Posts: 92
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« Reply #1 on: February 03, 2012, 04:21:40 PM » |
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If you want the physical copy, then sure why not?
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I am only guessing that you've gotten back from an interview because of the subtext of desperation in your questions
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kron3007
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« Reply #2 on: February 03, 2012, 04:35:05 PM » |
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Waste of money IMO, but whatever floats your boat I guess.
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melba_frilkins
Doing laundry.
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Doing laundry (still)
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« Reply #3 on: February 03, 2012, 05:09:36 PM » |
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Assuming you have library access, I'd vote no. When you graduate you'll either have to toss or move the hard copies. I have a whole shelf of useless journals I collected from the pre-internet days.
If having a hard copy makes it easier to read, invest the money in printing costs or a good laser printer.
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« Last Edit: February 03, 2012, 05:10:21 PM by melba_frilkins »
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offthemarket
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« Reply #4 on: February 03, 2012, 05:12:28 PM » |
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I'd rather sign up for the burrito-a-month-club with the same cash.
The only reason I imagine that you'd want to subscribe is to get access to articles that you otherwise wouldn't be able to access. Ten years ago, my advisor passed on to me twenty years of volumes from a couple journals in my field. I thought it was cool. Now, they are occupying space needlessly and frankly, I would access the pdf of articles in those volumes before even reaching for the shelf.
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chaosbydesign
"I like to lyse bacteria. Did you know I'm utterly insane?"
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Posts: 12,373
I'm doing Science and I'm still alive.
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« Reply #5 on: February 03, 2012, 05:15:15 PM » |
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I just print mine. I disposed of a whole load of printed articles recently after realizing that if I ever wanted to look at one, I didn't bother looking through what I already had, I just pulled up the PDF again. I like to have a hard copy to read and make notes from, but I have started storing articles digitally instead of keeping print-outs now as it takes up less space and they are also more easily accessible.
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Seriously, I tried to lick my own face. Ah. Typical ivory tower pedanticalness.
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bcohlan1
limericked his way to being a
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EPIC BEER
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« Reply #6 on: February 03, 2012, 05:21:34 PM » |
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When you graduate you'll either have to toss or move the hard copies.
This. Do keep in mind that if you do graduate, you'll probably spend years moving to a different temporary job every year. These moves can easily be across the country, or to another continent. You will start to resent your possessions for having mass. |
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Basically the moral of the story is that bcohlan1 is talking out of his ass again.
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toothpaste
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« Reply #7 on: February 03, 2012, 05:53:50 PM » |
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I keep having this little conversation with myself:
But I will need those journals when the apocalypse comes!
Toothpaste, when the apocalypse comes you will have other things to worry about!
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Oh, this is how you get a signature line.
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melba_frilkins
Doing laundry.
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Posts: 8,136
Doing laundry (still)
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« Reply #8 on: February 03, 2012, 06:00:17 PM » |
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I keep having this little conversation with myself:
But I will need those journals when the apocalypse comes!
Toothpaste, when the apocalypse comes you will have other things to worry about!
These reminds of advice to buy a manual typewriter, because you'll need it for forms and correspondence after the apocalypse arrives. Umm...yes, other things to worry about. |
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tee_bee
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« Reply #9 on: February 03, 2012, 06:05:25 PM » |
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When you graduate you'll either have to toss or move the hard copies.
This. Do keep in mind that if you do graduate, you'll probably spend years moving to a different temporary job every year. These moves can easily be across the country, or to another continent. You will start to resent your possessions for having mass. This. Use the library. Get stuff from JSTOR or Project Muse or wherever. Download PDFs. I tossed out all my old journals (in the social sciences) and don't miss them. Subscribe to your favorite journals' table of contents alert messages if they offer them. |
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theta_sigma
New member
Posts: 8
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« Reply #10 on: February 03, 2012, 08:35:37 PM » |
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I'm so glad I asked. You've all convinced me not only to refrain from subscribing to those journals, but also to revise my entire organizational scheme. I was planning to pick up a filing cabinet or two for all of my printed articles, which have already grown far, far too numerous for the simple folder system I've been using. How silly that seems, now that I think about it! I'll be so much better served coming up with a way to keep PDFs accessible and well organized on my computer.
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tee_bee
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« Reply #11 on: February 04, 2012, 11:55:52 PM » |
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I'm so glad I asked. You've all convinced me not only to refrain from subscribing to those journals, but also to revise my entire organizational scheme. I was planning to pick up a filing cabinet or two for all of my printed articles, which have already grown far, far too numerous for the simple folder system I've been using. How silly that seems, now that I think about it! I'll be so much better served coming up with a way to keep PDFs accessible and well organized on my computer.
There are lots of ways to do this. Folks on the fora seem partial to using Zotero for managing their PDFs. There are other tools as well. I like Evernote, or just well documented files names in a folder. This is a matter for a separate thread, and everyone pretty much has to develop a style that best suits them. But once you do, it's nice to have things at hand where ever you go. |
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mended_drum
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« Reply #12 on: February 05, 2012, 08:49:42 AM » |
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And if you have the extra money for the journals, sock it away in a savings account to use on the job search for clothes, meals, transportation, hotels, etc. Even an extra hundred dollars could be pretty valuable then.
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mleok
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« Reply #13 on: February 05, 2012, 02:17:35 PM » |
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Consider getting a Fujitsu Scansnap, which is a duplexing scanner with auto document feeder, which will allow you to convert a pile of paper into easy to store PDFs. While you should probably aim to collect any relevant journal articles in native PDF format, the Scansnap is a good tool for converting any notes you might have into digital format. In particular, I use it to digitize all my lecture notes, which allow me to lecture from my iPad, instead of lugging around notes.
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