Verbum Tip 3a: Personal name everything search results part 1

MJ. Smith

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Edited: Added section identified by being in bold. Additional small adjustments may not be marked.

Verbum 9 Tip 3: Personal name everything search results

At this point we have seen an embarrassingly little amount of data related to a Biblical person:

• Occurrences of the personal name of the Biblical person in Bibles
• References to the Biblical person in the Bible
• Other persons sharing the same name
• Finding the Person datatype that applies to the person
• A brief description of the person
• The gender of the person
• A visual spark chart of the Biblical reference but without the ability to explore the detail behind it.
• A short list of relatives

So, we will turn our attention first towards a broader search which will point us to resources with information related to the person and then towards the Bible Browser to identify data created by Faithlife. Specifically, we will learn to answer the following questions:

• What Factbook entries might shed light on the search results?
• What Bible verses most closely match the words in my search argument? (Fuzzy Bible Search intended for finding a partially remembered verse.)
• What Bible references might shed light on the search results? Given in my preferred Bible.
• What resources downloaded to this device might shed light on the search results?
• What resources in the cloud (i.e., owned but neither hidden nor downloaded to this device) might shed light on the search results?
• What documents have I created that might shed light on the search results?
• What personal books have I compiled that might shed light on the search results?
• What resources on Sermons.Faithlife.com might shed light on the search results?
• What resources on FaithlifeMedia might shed light on the search results?
• What Lookup options might shed light on the search results? (labeled “Topic”)
• What resources in my library are primarily about the research results?
• What resources in my media collection might shed light on the search results?
• What atlas resources might shed light on the search results?
• What resources are tagged with Community tags indicating that they might shed light on the search results?
• What resources on Books.logos.com might shed light on the search results?
• What resources on Logos.com are primarily about the search results? (Yes, link is Logos not Verbum).

Setup:

• Open Search panel
• Set search type to Basic
• Select Everything option
• Enter Abraham and select “Abraham Man, Patriarch, Prophet, Seer, Shepherd”

Run the Search:

 

Factbook (unnamed) section

From Verbum Help:

[quote]Factbook

Lists any Factbook headings matching the query.^[1]

 

The first section has no section heading bar; it cannot be collapsed.

• The blue icon indicates male
• A single name is offered i.e. Abraham but not Abram
• A list of roles; note that this differs from what we saw on input
• Contents: on the left, the first entry in the Media section of Factbook | Abraham.
• Contents: on the right, the initial text of the Key Article section of Factbook | Abraham
• Mouse over “Go to Factbook” provide an information card (short form – compare to that on the parameter input)
• Click on “Go to Factbook” takes one to Factbook |Abraham. A detailed discussion of Factbook entries will occur later in hopes that more portions of it will be fully implemented.

Fuzzy Bible search section

From Verbum Help:

[quote]Fuzzy Bible Search

Finds specific verses or pericopes without relying on an exact phrase. See: Fuzzy Search^[2]

Section disappeared when I clicked to expand it. While this surprised me, it is appropriate as the contents would be meaningless.

Preferred Bible section

From Verbum Help:

[quote]Preferred Bible

Lists the first few passages from the preferred Bible. Click Bible Search "Bible title" at the end of the results to re-run the search on the whole Bible.^[3]

• My preferred Bible is the NRSV which yields 1,276 results in 510 verses. Note the use of verses as the unit means that a Bible search was run. A Basic search would report by article/chapter.
• Only the first few results are shown. There is no “more” function.
• Mouse over on the reference previews the verse i.e. duplicates the entry content; mouse over on a highlighted result previews a larger block of the text. Note that the preview starts with the word over which one hovers.
  
  
  
• Initiating the Bible Search at the bottom of the section yields familiar results.
  
  Note this gives access to alternate display formatting and charting tools not available in the Everything Search itself.

Library (Downloaded) section

From Verbum Help – before the distinction between downloaded and cloud was made:

[quote]Library Results

Functions much in the same way as “All Resources” does in Basic search. Resources will list the number of hits and can be expanded/collapsed to display the relevant passages.^[4]

Note this behaves as a search on <Person Abraham> which limits the results to tagged resources, a limited portion of one’s library. Commentaries, patristics, liturgy, homilies … most of the library is omitted. What is included? Bibles and reference works (dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases, lexicons. . .). For major projects, look at Community Tags as the way to extend the power of the Search.

• My downloaded library yielded 47,649 results in 5,056 articles in 123 resources – all Bibles or reference works.
• The article heading line provides the article title, the resource name, and the number of results found in the article. The article title and resource title on mouse-over, both provide a resource information card.
• A preview of text or thumbnail of media appears below the article heading.
• A text preview has results highlighted; mouse over a highlighted result open a preview of the text. In this case, the preview retains formatting lost in the search results.
• Clicking on a highlighted result will open the resource to that locations. You may also drag and drop to control where the resource panel opens.

Library (Cloud) section

SUGGESTION: Library (Cloud) behavior should match Library (Downloaded) in Everything Search

The Library (Cloud) sections works much like the Library (Downloaded) section. There are two significant differences:

• Rather than a few examples and a Search structure, the Cloud uses a few examples and endless “more” clicks. I find this unacceptable hence the suggestion.
• Because the resource is not downloaded, previews of the text are not available.

Mouse-over the resource name displays an information card:

Clicking on a selected result opens an option to download the resource for viewing or to view it in the web application.

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^[1] Verbum Help (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2018).

^[2] Verbum Help (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2018).

^[3] Verbum Help (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2018).

^[4] Verbum Help (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2018).