A modest proposal - first step
You (as PhD Candidate) should have a
research area or
field clearly identified and to be able to define at least a first set of keywords. From this set of key-words you can perform your first search in one of the many abstracts and citations database we have already quoted. Just add the
EU Research Projects databases and any other useful retrievable document collection you have access to.
The results of such a search will let you to collect a first set of references. Whatever the tool you will use to manage this list, you will have rapid access to their titles, authors and, at least, a summary for each one of them (books, papers, documents ...).
Carefully read those few words, in order to understand if that item is or is not interesting for your study and filter it, eliminating any unsuitable content.
Interesting and relevant documents will be searched and found (I mean downloaded or acquired someway). Reading them, you will find other references quoted, enriching your collection in a never-ending updating process of your list.
Your Bibliography will grow, day after day, up to the end of your PhD path and beyond ... but you will soon reach a reasonably complete set of documents. Your first year bibliography will probably include already 80-90% of your final documents (if you are not going to change idea about your topic during your PhD, of course!).
A modest proposal - second step
Once you have a bibliography, you have to read, understand, assimilate and critically analyze each one of the documents you have collected (at least those that will become fundamental references for your work and your knowledge).
The best way to do this is to take notes and start writing: taking notes about their content and elaborating summaries that may become useful, providing some fundamental bricks of your future thesis (fundamental quotations, concepts ... however re-elaborated). Writing is always a good exercise, since the researcher's work is mainly reading (and critically understanding your readings) and writing.
You may even start writing structured texts and format them in a collection of information sheets about your readings, to be attached to your thesis, if it will include good pieces of work.
In any case, this series of information sheets will not be the main output of this second phase, but a more specific extraction of information.