Humanités Numériques (Dec 2023)
Dans l’ordinateur d’un médiéviste. Peut-on utiliser un logiciel de personal knowledge management pour appliquer une méthode de recherche historique ?
Abstract
The creation and management of records, which are the basis of scholarly work in the social sciences and humanities, are mainly done with word processing software, which is ill-suited for this purpose. In this paper, I present Obsidian, a tool using the Markdown language, and the so-called Zettelkasten method, which I apply to research in medieval history. Firstly, I consider their insertion in the field of Personal Knowledge Management, as well as their functionalities, before showing their use in my work database. This approach makes navigation easier by creating links between records, but also allows for very precise and efficient global searches. Thanks to this organisation, it is possible to manage a large amount of documents and it facilitates the emergence of new ideas, but it obviously does not replace reflection. Like with any tool, one must define what one wants to do with it, make it one’s own, and use it for a specific purpose. Obsidian allows one to navigate through one’s own analyses in a powerful, rapid and easy manner. As for the Zettelkasten method, it can be used to structure one’s analysis, formalise it and build one’s thought.
