Half in, half out

Going slightly off the topic of Open Access and other research support related activities today and thinking about the work environment for those of us in support roles.

A while ago, I made a pact to only produce reports in electronic form, and not print them for anyone, just send them the files.  I also had a plan to try and reduce the amount of paper written notes I produce, that just get transcribed into electronic notes later on.

Why?  With one eye on the environment, and another on more easily accessing the information I need, whilst also reducing the amount of time I spend 'creating' notes from notes I have already created, it seems like the only way to go.

Weirdly, I find myself 'half in, half out' of the migration to digital.. I purchased a new set of notebooks yesterday.  There's nothing quite like paper notebooks, somehow my thoughts and ideas don't flow so easily in an electronic world.  My handwriting is certainly faster and more accurate than my typing!  It's more than this though.  With the need to move from meeting to meeting, or from training event and back to my desk, I'm not  really provided with the tools to be able to rove from one location to another and take my work life with me.  I'm not the only one, so it's not a personal thing, but it is slightly frustrating and something I am trying to change for the team I work in at present.

I have just had a peruse of my desk at work:

• Work issued computer
• Personal iPad (I wish I had a work issued one but there you go) with Mac wireless keyboard
• In-tray (overflowing with stuff I am already working on)
• 3 notebooks for the different parts of my role
• Leather bound personal/professional diary (it's posh, and I can't seem to live without it, my iPhone calendar just doesn't seem the same)
• RLUK strategic plan 2011 (passed to me by a colleague a copy of which also currently on my iPad)
• Post-its - a dead giveaway that I haven't entirely relinquished the paper world yet

File boxes, and lots of them fill my shelves, probably largely stuff that could be scanned and disposed of by now, and not replaced by new paper versions.  I do however find it difficult not to print lengthy reports for ease of transport and reading at my leisure, although I am getting better at doing this with my iPad when I am on the move.

So, back to open access.  If I find it hard to migrate to a more digital environment, how exactly do I expect my researcher colleagues to be any more successful in order to fulfill their open access obligations on research data?  Hmm, food for thought.