TIP of the day: Library and bibliography control

MJ. Smith

This is a trick I started back when my library was small enough that I often didn't have a resource with the answer to my question but large enough that I couldn't remember what I had. Or put another way, before Verbum so I had many resources from base packages that I wasn't familiar with.

1. Build a visual filter with styles that indicate the status of a particular resource in your library. I used a solid line to indicate resources I had access to and a dotted line (or nothing) for resources to which I did not have access. Within those I had access to I made the following distinctions:

• Owned in Logos
• Owned in other software
• Owned in dead tree format
• Available online

Within those I did not have access to I made one distinction:

• Available in Logos (dotted line of same color as owned in Logos)
• Not available in Logos (unmarked)

When researching particular topics for several days, I would mark up Bibliographies as follows:

What this did was allow me, each time I came back to the article to see what resources I could read for further information ... and what gaps there were in my research. So if I were concentrating on women in Paul rather than in the New Testament in General, I could go to the Logos store, a book store or a library to fill the gap.

2. With the new Passage Guide Sections, I have found it useful to use this same markup technique on two resources:

• Brannan, Rick, and Peter Venable. Systematic Theology Cross-References: Dataset Documentation. Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2015.
• Brannan, Rick, and Peter Venable. Confessional Documents Cross-References: Dataset Documentation. Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2015.

Now if I want to look at the Mennonite point of view, I can see that there is nothing I can do to increase the information in the Confessional Documents section but I can improve my results in the Systematic Theology section by purchasing the book by Thomas Finger.

Yes, it would not be time effective to do this for all bibliographies. However, for those related to specific projects or that I frequently return to, the time saved by seeing at a glance rather than clicking through "dead links" is a real timesaver (not to mention frustration level leveler).