Literature notes are a kind of note used in the Zettelkasten method. Literature notes are the most common form of note, especially in this archive. They are used to document important takeaways from a source material in one’s own words, providing the first layer of thought and processing for a given subject. In this archive, literature notes are taken for about everything, including rough notes for lectures, textbook readings, and video game research. They are identical to regular, first-pass lecture notes with no review. They are also used to document citation-heavy or pure citation notes where large quotes and excerpts are derived from a source.

In the Zettelkasten sphere, literature notes are synonymous with reference notes; this is adhered to on this site as well.