A spiral-bound notebook that includes handwritten notes by Donald Cowan about meetings, conferences and lectures he attended as well as various research topics including local area networks, LANs, databases, cartesian products and joins, and much more. Also includes loose papers with handwritten notes, a pamphlet for WATCAT (University of Waterloo Library's online catalogue), and two floppy disks (5¼-inch format) that were tucked inside the front cover of the notebook. It is unclear what information may be available on the floppy disks.

A hardcover notebook titled, Research November 23, 1990 #1, that includes handwritten notes by Donald Cowan about meetings and discussions with several people and organizations including WATCOM and IBM, workshops, conferences and presentations as well as various research topics including user interfaces, the design of an ADV for a menu, the design of the shell, application frameworks, and much more.