What variables does this feature use to pull Illustrations? Right now, it seems as though it is only pulling from my Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations resources.
Are there others? What tags or criteria does it use to pull these?
What variables does this feature use to pull Illustrations? Right now, it seems as though it is only pulling from my Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations resources. Are there others? What tags or criteria does it use to pull these?
I just downloaded and installed the latest Beta and my index is rebuilding right now so I have not tested this feature. Is your indexing complete? If not I imagine this is affecting the behavior. If that is not the case, what happens if prioritze your illustration resources.
I am just guessing right now because (like I said) I have not even tested this yet because of indexing.
I think (but I could be wrong) that it's currently pulling from Illustrations resources (a combination of a library filter and a hard-coded list) that have the "heading" field. At the moment, this may only be the Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations resource, but additional resources should be updated with the heading field during the beta.
My log file gives this info about which resources it's looking for:
2011-01-18 23:33:55.1093 4 Info LibraryCatalogIndex Searching for all records matching: subject:"Homiletical Illustrations" OR subject:"Anecdotes" OR subject:"Sermones--Ilustraciones" OR title:"Sermon Illustrations"
New illustration section looks great.. Now I just need more illustration books [;)].. It would also be cool if it could link to sites that focus on illustrations.. Just a thought
Yes, this was after indexing was complete.
Thanks everyone.
I have played with this and can confirm that only illustrations from the resource "Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations" are returned by this feature. I have 5 or 6 other illustration resources that are not recognized. I tried prioritizing them and that did not help.
Another issue I see is that in the list (you can view the screen shot below) the logos resource ID is returned rather than the name of the resource.
I have 5 or 6 other illustration resources that are not recognized.
Fred, could you give me the support info for those?
Thanks!
I agree that it is just matching against "Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations" although I have four resources which match the string suggested by Todd above:
2011-01-18 23:33:55.1093 4 Info LibraryCatalogIndex Searching for all records matching: subject:"Homiletical Illustrations"OR subject:"Anecdotes" OR subject:"Sermones--Ilustraciones" OR title:"Sermon Illustrations"
But I would also like to understand more details of the matching algorithm.
I have an "Illustrations" collection included in my PG and this finds illustrations which have reference to the passage I am searching.
But the new category seems to work differently.
I tried John 11:35 and got:
So even in the one matching resource they end up with different results - hence my interest in the algorithm.
Any thoughts / perspectives on this would be appreciated.
Graham
I hope that this will be changed. Once a number of these resources are tagged, I'd want to see the title as I have some favorites.
I can also see a potential problem with how Logos tries to identify these resources. When I use the search string Todd listed it gives me 14 resources which I have in my own Illustrations and Quotations Collection. I actually have 22 resources in my collection, of which 3 are books of quotations. Eliminating these I have 5 books of illustrations Logos would miss:
AMG Bible Illustrations, My Favorite Illustrations, Speaker's Sourcebook of New Illustrations, The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart, and Nelson's Annual Preacher's Sourcebook, 2005 Edition (the Logos search gets the others but not this one).
My search string is Title:(Illustrations, quotations,"Preacher's Sourcebook",Tardy). This would add in the 3 books of quotations but I'd like to see those included in a search for illustrations. I have to manually edit out Old Testament Quotations and Illusions in the New Testament, and two volumes of Philo and Holy Scripture (caught by the 'quotations' search).
This will change. The Illustrations section is in a beta stage, still in development.
I have an "Illustrations" collection included in my PG and this finds illustrations which have reference to the passage I am searching. But the new category seems to work differently.
This is also in the logs:
2011-01-19 09:28:53.3437 5 Info IllustrationsSection 118 in LLS:23.0.22011-01-19 09:28:53.9531 5 Info IllustrationsSection 67 in LLS:23.0.32011-01-19 09:28:54.0625 5 Info IllustrationsSection 18 in LLS:23.0.42011-01-19 09:28:54.1718 5 Info IllustrationsSection 68 in LLS:23.0.6
Those are all topical bibles. This is followed by a list of headwords,
2011-01-19 09:28:54.7031 5 Info IllustrationsSection Headwords: AbideAdultery, Instances ofApostlesBaptism, Christian...
and then this line which I posted previously"
It looks like they are generating a list of topical headwords by searching for the passage in the topical bibles, and then using those topics to search the Illustrations resources, rather than searching the illustration resources for the passage. Which makes sense, because the Illustrations resources don't have many scripture references.
What if in addition to any Illustration resources and algorithm Logos decides on for this feature, if the algorithm used to determine resources to search also checked for the existence of Mytag;"Illustrations" or mytag:"My Illustrations", and used that to find resources? That way any user can add whatever resources they want to be used in this section of the Passage Guide?
It looks like they are generating a list of topical headwords by searching for the passage in the topical bibles, and then using those topics to search the Illustrations resources, rather than searching the illustration resources for the passage.
Good detective work, Todd. Now if Logos would create a database with the information from all topical Bibles on all possible subjects they wouldn't have to take so long generating this part of the report (which is very slow). That would probably be a big database, but it certainly could speed things up. It would also be usable for the Topic section of the PG (have you discovered how they find these, Todd?).
What if in addition to any Illustration resources and algorithm Logos decides on for this feature, if the algorithm used to determine resources to search also checked for the existence of Mytag;"Illustrations" or mytag:"My Illustrations", and used that to find resources?
I think that is a great suggestion. If you read my suggestion above aimed at reducing the time it takes to generate this section of the report, your suggestion would work if Logos created a local index for topical searching taking the Mytags into account.
I too am not getting any hits in the new illustrations part of the PG. Here is a screen print of the PG that has new illustrations portion along with the collection that I have setup for my illustrations:
I too am not getting any hits in the new illustrations part of the PG.
Do you have Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations in your library? That seems to be a requirement as it is right now.
Hi Jannie,
My system is still indexing & it'd take longer than I have to run MPG. So I've exported the list of books in my Illustrations collection. These are the books in Platinum that I'd expect to be recognized:
Illustrations
1000 Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching
Jones, G. Curtis. 1000 Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching. Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1986.
AMG Bible Illustrations
Anecdotes and Illustrations
Torrey, R. A. Anecdotes and Illustrations. New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1907.
Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations
Tan, Paul Lee. Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times. Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc., 1996.
Illustrations for Biblical Preaching
Green, Michael P. Illustrations for Biblical Preaching : Over 1500 Sermon Illustrations Arranged by Topic and Indexed Exhaustively. Revised edition of: The expositor's illustration file. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1989.
More Real Stories for the Soul
My Favorite Illustrations
Hobbs, Herschel H. My Favorite Illustrations. Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1990.
Nelson's Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations & Quotes
Morgan, Robert J. Nelson's Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations, and Quotes. electronic ed. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000.
Old Testament Quotes in the New Testament
Philipps, H. David. Old Testament Quotes in the New Testament. Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009.
Real Stories for the Soul
Morgan, Robert J. Real Stories for the Soul. electronic ed. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000.
The Speaker's Quote Book
Zuck, Roy B. The Speaker's Quote Book : Over 4,500 Illustrations and Quotations for All Occasions. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1997.
Speaker's Sourcebook of New Illustrations
Hurley, Virgil. Speaker's Sourcebook of New Illustrations. electronic ed. Dallas: Word Publishers, 2000.
Page . Exported from Logos Bible Software 4, 8:32 AM January 19, 2011.
1000 Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching Jones, G. Curtis. 1000 Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching. Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1986.
Thanks Bill. Could you give me the support info for the resource above? (Press the "i" button top right for the resource; at the bottom is the info I want)
One illustration source that I would add to Bill's list is 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. The support info is:
LLS:22.0.1026
2008-10-02T13:39:15Z
GS_ILLUS.lbxlls
Not Bill but here it is:
LLS:1000ILLSPRCHTCH2009-10-27T19:17:48Z1000ILLSPRCHTCH.logos4
Also: The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart:
LLS:60.0.61980-04-08T00:00:07ZTTOXCART.LSF
Todd, thanks for the analysis.
Great work, Graham
Here is the information for what is in my library
LLS:ANECILLUS
2009-10-27T18:46:57Z
ANECILLUS.logos4
LLS:FAVILLUSTRTNS
2009-10-27T00:00:15Z
FAVILLUSTRTNS.logos4
LLS:1000ILLSPRCHTCH
2009-10-27T19:17:48Z
1000ILLSPRCHTCH.logos4
Thanks, Mark! I'm on study leave this & next week.... internet time is limted, so thanks again.
Some more that should be included:
1001 Illustrations that ConnectLLS:1001ILLCONCT2010-03-26T22:16:58Z1001ILLCONCT.logos4
1001 Quotations that Connect: Timeless Wisdom for Preaching, Teaching, and WritingLLS:1001QUOTCONCT2010-03-30T21:27:45Z1001QUOTCONCT.logos4
Great QuotationsLLS:61.0.122009-10-26T23:45:38ZGRTQUOTE.logos4
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary of QuotationsLLS:46.10.232009-10-26T23:43:24ZMWDICTQUO.logos4
The New Encyclopedia of Christian QuotationsLLS:14.0.1382009-10-26T22:17:42ZENCYCHRQUO.logos4
Here are some more recent resources that haven't been mentioned yet, but should be added if they are not already in the works:
EDIT: deleted support info. Mark Barnes has mentioned them already! lol.
Peace.
I wish it showed a snippet of the illustration, but then I wish that for all content notes etc, the book title to me is less important than a preview/snippet
I have a couple of other Illustration resources
1. New Testament Sermon Starters LLS:36.0.82009-10-27T19:16:06ZEXPROTLN.logos4
2. The Scripture Alphabet of Animals LLS:22.0.12006-03-23T20:02:55Zanimalph.lbxlls
3. Cups Of Light LLS:22.0.62002-08-08T19:04:44Zcuplight.lbxlls
4. Great Quotations LLS:61.0.122009-10-26T23:45:38ZGRTQUOTE.logos4
5. The Merriam Websters Dictionary of Quotations LLS:46.10.232009-10-26T23:43:24ZMWDICTQUO.logos4
Steve Caswell
There are a few more sermon illustration books available.
1. New Testament Sermon Starters LLS:36.0.82009-10-27T19:16:06ZEXPROTLN.logos42. Great Quoations LLS:61.0.122009-10-26T23:45:38ZGRTQUOTE.logos43. Scripture Alphabet of Animals LLS:22.0.12006-03-23T20:02:55Zanimalph.lbxlls4. Cups of Light LLS:22.0.62002-08-08T19:04:44Zcuplight.lbxlls5. Merriam Websters Dictionary of Great Quotations LLS:46.10.232009-10-26T23:43:24ZMWDICTQUO.logos4
Stephen Caswell
Question: Anyone know if the latest version of the beta addressed the issue of including these other "Illustrations" resources into the Search section of the PG?
I don't think there has been any change. Also some resources don't support headwords or headings e.g.
No headwords/headings
No results even though it has headwords
I have not seen a change either. I am waiting on my most used resource, 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. I suspect the problem with that one is that it was put out by Galaxie Software. Hopefully that one will get updated in the near future.
