Alternative to Manual Tagging?

All,

I sat through Morris Proctor's "Out of Sight and Out of Mind Books" webinar yesterday and recognize the value of manual tagging so that monographs can be hit in regular research. However, I have FAR TOO MANY monographs to be able to do this .

Is there an alternative method so that I can get these into some valuable collections without spending the hundreds of hours it would take me to tag all of these manually?

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John Fidel

Hi Tanner,

I agree and my suggestion to FL is here:

https://community.logos.com/forums/t/189588.aspx

It is not the first time I have made it. That said there are a few options:

You can go to www.faithlife.com and look for groups that have collections already set up.
You can try and utilize subjects in your library and create tags or collections from them. For example here are the books in my library with the subject "Christian Life" and the type "Monograph". I can select the first on hold the shift key select the last and then tag them or drop them one by one into a collection.

Hope this helps get you started.

DMB

However, I have FAR TOO MANY monographs to be able to do this

As noted above, no magic bullets. But it's not as hard as it might seem. I have my hundreds of commentary volumes not only multi-tagged, but re-titled for ease of use (sorting, quick access, etc). Thousands of monographs are a bit harder since they try really hard to not fit in my earlier tags. So, delay occurs while I waffle around.

The key for me, is to use a not-yet-tagged tag to constantly isolate the target, working its way down. 'Select All' within filters. And then take advantage of key words that typically show up in the book descriptions.

Tanner Thetford

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1092878#Comment_1092878

Thanks, Denise. Can you describe some of those keywords that you utilize or maybe a list? I'm not sure where to even begin. I found an old thread that had Bruce's tagging in it, but that seemed quite extensive. I'm thinking something in the realm of 30ish tags would strike a good balance? Not sure on any of this.

Bruce Dunning

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1092879#Comment_1092879

I found an old thread that had Bruce's tagging in it, but that seemed quite extensive.

Since you mentioned this I thought I'd provide the current list that I'm using. - 3568.My Tagging System for Logos.docx

I continue to tag every resource that I own which did take me a long time. What I have found most interesting is that my tagging is continuing to grow with time which is making it even more useful.

I attended Morris Proctor's seminar yesterday too and he had some great ideas. If I were you and didn't want to tag every book I'd at least get started by choosing a number of categories that are important to you and then search for those topics and tag those resources. In time you can continue to build on this list and every time you come across a resource that you like tag it. If you take time to invest like this I believe it will benefit you increasingly as you use it. Personally I do exactly that all the time.

I hope that helps.

Tanner Thetford

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1092890#Comment_1092890

Thank you for attaching this, Bruce.

I suppose I can work towards something like this, but it simply seems so daunting for thousands of monographs . . . .

As an upside, I'm sure there is some sort of benefit to simply interacting with each resource even just a little bit in terms of understanding and knowing your own library better.

Still looking for a helpful alternative if anyone has one.

Bruce Dunning

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1092891#Comment_1092891

Thank you for attaching this, Bruce.

Glad to help Tanner.

I suppose I can work towards something like this, but it simply seems so daunting for thousands of monographs . . . .

As an upside, I'm sure there is some sort of benefit to simply interacting with each resource even just a little bit in terms of understanding and knowing your own library better.

Don't underestimate the value of this. Even if it takes you months to do it little by little is it not worth at least knowing what is in your library?

Still looking for a helpful alternative if anyone has one.

Will be watching to see if others have good ideas for this too.

DMB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1092879#Comment_1092879

Not sure on any of this

I doubt I can suggest ... my library is heavily hard-core (languages, archeo, etc) and I'm guessing yours is more theological-ish. Some techniques that I'd suggest:

1. As above, create a tag for resources not yet tagged. You use this to slowly narrow down your challenge. So, at each step, you include only resources remaining. And as you tag a group, you remove the associated not-tagged tag.

2. Select your easy ones first, using title:xyz where often a group has a similar title. Ditto for series:xyz. Sometimes publisher:xyz. Also author:xyz

3. Then, common words such a religion, doctrine, or whatever is associated with your desired tag.

4. As you filter, you'll get not-wanted's. Put a '-' in front of a key word to eliminate them. Then, do a select all (control-a) and reject any miscellaneous, using a control-click. I'm assuming a PC.

5. Apply the desired tag, and removed the not-tagged tag. Then see what's left, that's similar.

Regarding tag names:

1. You WILL end up with a lot of tag names. Even if you want to begin simple. The key is to strategize your names.

2. In my library, I might start with a tag for Archaeology. Later, I narrow down to Archaeology_Israel. And later, Archaeology_Israel_IronAge. As I create smaller groups, I keep the larger group name on the front. This allows you to easily refine later. And in day-to-day use, the groups are all nicely arranged.

3. If indeed your library is theological, you'll have multiple types of tags for a resource (most books cross multiple areas). In this case, you'd want the theology type name first, then the specific. Example: Soteriology_Early

Finally, you'd do well just to tag a part of your library (most used?). Then see if you like it. Make changes. Don't get half-way in, and re-start.

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1092891#Comment_1092891

Still looking for a helpful alternative if anyone has one

I only tag resources for categories I am interested in; so I have only tagged roughly half of my monographs and have no intention of tagging the others!

There is a tension between Subject categories and the need to tag when creating a Collection e.g. subject:creation is useful, but there are other books that suit my need, so I tag all of them e.g. mytag:creation. But you could tag only the exceptions and use subject:creation OR mytag:creation.

If I want to know about sermons, I can use subject:sermons, or restrict it to subject:sermons--outlines. If I was interested, I would look more closely and tag the useful ones.