Maps, helpful and frequently used addresses, Web links, information gleaned from RootsWeb mailing lists, and other information about the localities I am researching all go into this notebook. I am trying to eliminate the loose papers by entering all of the papers' information into my computer and then filing the paper as quickly as possible. Dividers in the notebook help make items easy to locate within the notebook. I still have some papers that don't quite have a home, and I am looking at ways of organizing those odds and ends that don't quite fit. As for my daughter, she still finds ways to circumvent my system.
Organization seems to be an ongoing process.
Juliana Smith is the editor of the Ancestry Daily News and author of The Ancestry Family Historian's Address Book. She has written for Ancestry Magazine and Genealogical Computing. An archive of Juliana's Monday column, The Family History Compass , is available online.