Bringing lab books & stationary in and out of the lab? - (Nov/24/2011 )

Maybe it's just me but I feel hesitant bringing 'office' stuff like my lab notebooks or lab manuals and stationary like pens out of the lab. With pens, I can have lab pens for use in the lab only but do people duplicate their notes and important protocols?

There can be alot of hazardous chemicals/reagents which could 'contaminate' the books yea?

How do people get by this problem?

As technician you learn to have a lab journal and write down all the more or less important stuff as soon as possible. Surely you have to take care a bit (i.e. not putting it in the next acid or acrylamide puddle or holding it in a bunsen burner flame ). But anyway you should work neatly with such accidents and the lab coat has pockets for journal and pens.

I usually write down protocol on a piece of paper (free stuff with logos from companies that come in vast quantities) at my desk, bring it to the lab and after work and possibly adding some notes or changes I bring that paper back to office and write the final version neatly to my protocol book. Then I bin the paper.
We have big paper sheets over lab desks which are changed when spilled-over, so you can see if you're putting your things into a clean spot. And of course everyone cleans everything after a work session. We keep separate pencils, markers and note-papers in lab for use there. Usually we don't move them around, even between labs (I color-coded them with tape).

forgot to add: the protocol itself I print out and pin it with a magnet somewhere at eye height on the shelf obove the lab table...

You can also designate an area of your bench for paperwork, that never has anything else put on it. I use a clipboard with loose sheets of paper and then write up fully later, as well as keeping the loose sheets.