(You’ll find a bit more on these last two at the bottom of the post). At the top are a few items: Inbox, the default repository for new files I drag into the program Tags, which I don’t really use Mobile Sync, a reception point for items that come in through the DevonThink ToGo mobile app, and Evernote, which receives clippings I make with the Evernote app.

When I fire up the program and open my Dissertation database, I’m met with the menu you see below to the left. But my fellow Mac-owning archival researchers looking to build a digital database may find something of value in the ensuing description of the DevonThink process I’ve come to rely on over the past year. I should also note that the program is only available for Mac - I know, I know - so if you haven’t been sucked into the Apple vortex, this post won’t be of much use to you. I have no doubt that someone with more technical skill could wring much more from it than I can. I should say at the outset that I can claim no particular expertise with regard to this program. Like ABBYY FineScanner, it’s quite pricey ( $149.95 after a 150-hour test-drive), but coming up on 15 months together I couldn’t imagine my life without it. In a post about the wonders of ABBYY FineScanner back in May, I promised to write about another pillar of my archival process, the database management program, DevonThink Pro Office.

The Amazing Generosity of Academic Research in Brazil.

December 1978: Uruguayan Torturers Commemorate Human Rights Month.

The CIA Channels its Inner Authoritarian.

The Armed Left Confronts Torture: São Paulo, 1970.

ABBYY FineScanner for Archival Research.

Digital Resources for Study of the Argentine Left.

Rodolfo Walsh and the Politics of Violence: Part I.

Rodolfo Walsh and the Politics of Violence: Part II.Anti-Imperialist Solidarity, CIA Edition.Maricá’s Solidarity Economy in The Politics of Care.

Devonthink pro smart folder