Escaping the Paper Jungle

     As professional musicians we are constantly bombarded from the outside world with piles of paper - in the form of printed music, lead sheets, song lists, liner notes, programs, schedules, tech manuals, spec sheets, warranties and wiring diagrams, etc.  We also create our own small forest of notes and lists - things we have to do, music we'd like to check out, compositional ideas, technical studies, assignments for students, worksheets, etc.   In short, we quickly become seriously buried in our own work.  It can be distracting and overwhelming, and utterly disorganized. When it comes time to find something specific ... well, good luck with that.
  A new generation of relational databases ( often referred to as "notes" programs ) can provide a way out.   These programs enable you to type in notes, ideas, scan in music and documents,  even archive photos and music in such a way as to be accessible from any computer or mobile device.  All entries are searchable by key word, or ANY word, for that matter and all information is stored in cyberspace, and can be backed up at home.   In the past Lotus Notes and Entourage Notes were around and worked well,  but now the options are more plentiful.
   Below is a list of just a few of the programs available, most are free in their basic form.  I am using Ubernotes, for the most part and am currently exploring Evernote, which has been particularly easy to set up and get running on computer and iphone.  For dealing with music scores and leadsheets,  I usually scan and save jpgs to two separate hard-drives, planning on the day when one of them crashes.   The amount of paper put into the recycling bin is astounding - but every day brings a new pile of paper into the house that needs to be dispersed.  These are some of the most visible notes programs - all have slightly different features and are heavily reviewed:
Ubernote
Evernote
Microsoft  OneNote
Springpad
Cinta Notes
Simple Notes