[Source](https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/handle/1773/2031 "Permalink to Don’t Take My Folders Away! Organizing Personal Information to Get Things Done")
# Don’t Take My Folders Away! Organizing Personal Information to Get Things Done
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## Don’t Take My Folders Away! Organizing Personal Information to Get Things Done
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[__ Don't take my folders away, current.pdf (232.2Kb)][9]
##### Date
2005-01-11
##### Author
Jones, William
Phuwanartnurak, Ammy Jiranida
Gill, Rajdeep
Bruce, Harry
##### Metadata
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##### Abstract
A study explores the way people organize information in support of projects (“teach a course”, “plan a wedding”, etc.). The folder structures to organize project information – especially electronic documents and other files – frequently resembled a “divide and conquer” problem decomposition with subfolders corresponding to major components (subprojects) of the project. Folders were clearly more than simply a means to one end: Organizing for later retrieval. Folders were information in their own right – representing, for example, a person’s evolving understanding of a project and its components. Unfortunately, folders are often “overloaded” with information. For example, folders sometimes included leading characters to force an ordering (“aa”, “zz”). And folder hierarchies frequently reflected a tension between organizing information for current use vs. repeated re-use.
##### URI
<http://hdl.handle.net/1773/2031>
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* [Information School Technical Report Repository][7] [20]
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