Thinking about the current storage capacity of my card index collection, I made a back-of-the-index-card calculation:  

172,000 index cards * 150 words / card [average maximum, using front only] * 1,200 bytes / 150 words [rough average with Unicode encoding] * 1 kb / 1024 bytes * 1MB/1024 kb = approximately 200 MB of text storage

Having it well organized and indexed… Priceless.

A bright room with a green steel table on top of which sits a 1950 gray Royal KMG typewriter, a two drawer Shaw-Walker oak card index and some papers and mathematics textbooks. Behind the table is a barrister's bookcase full of books, and two card index filing cabinets.

Bookmarked Paperpile: Modern reference and PDF management (paperpile.com)

Manage your research library right in your browser

  • Save time with a smart, intuitive interface
  • Access your PDFs from anywhere
  • Format citations within Google Docs

… and much more

I know I’ve run across this tool in the past, sometime just after it launched. I remember thinking it was interesting, but it was missing some things for me. Perhaps it’s worth another look to see how it has evolved and what it entails now?

In some sense it does a lot of what I’ve been using Calibre for and is not too dissimilar to Zotero and Mendeley, though obviously all with some slightly different offerings.

hat tip: Kimberly Hirsh for reminding me about it.