1. A pen-based computing system for digitally capturing content from printed material, the system comprising: a printed document comprising one or more pages of printed data, the printed document associated with a document identifier; a digital bookclip comprising a material encoded with a pattern; a smart pen device configured to receive audio data and written data and including an imaging system capable of reading the encoded pattern of the digital bookclip to determine a location of the smart pen device on the digital bookclip; a database storing a digital representation of the printed document; computer program code stored on a memory and configured to be executed by a processor coupled to the smart pen device, the computer program code including instructions for: accessing the digital representation of the printed document from the database using the document identifier, identifying a portion of the digital representation of the printed document responsive to a selection by the smart pen device of one or more locations on the digital bookclip, and retrieving the portion of the digital representation of the printed document corresponding to the selection by the smart pen device.