Verbum 9 Tip 7j: Basic search: select passage range continued

MJ. Smith

Docx files for personal book: Verbum 9 part 1; Verbum 9 part 2; Verbum 9 part 3; Verbum 9 part 4; How to use the Verbum Lectionary and Missal; Verbum 8 tips 1-30; Verbum 8 tips 31-49

Reading lists: Catholic Bible Interpretation

Please be generous with your additional details, corrections, suggestions, and other feedback. This is being built in a .docx file for a PBB which will be shared periodically.

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Alternative to milestone

Sermons are an example of a resource that is generally indexed only by page (1). However, one can narrow the scope of a search by taking advantage of the Sermon label (2).

Using the Copy Reference: Search option provides this identifier for the sermon: {Label Sermon WHERE Creator ~ <Biography Augustine of Hippo> AND References ~ <Mt 20:30> AND Title ~ "The Recovery of Sight by the Blind"}

To refer to all sermons by St. Augustine of Hippo use {Label Sermon WHERE Creator ~ <Biography Augustine of Hippo>}. Remember that omitting an attribute is the equivalent of setting it to “ANY”.

With Kleiser, Grenville, ed. The World’s Great Sermons: Basil to Calvin. Vol. 1. New York; London: Funk & Wagnalls, 1908 as the only open resource, a search on knowledge produces. Note the results from Augustine of Hippo have been identified by a red box.

Limiting the results to a single sermon with the search argument knowledge WITHIN  {Label Sermon WHERE Creator ~ <Biography Augustine of Hippo> AND References ~ <Mt 20:30> AND Title ~ "The Recovery of Sight by the Blind"} produces the results:

Limiting the results to sermons by Augustine in Hippo in any tagged resource by the search argument knowledge WITHIN  {Label Sermon WHERE Creator ~ <Biography Augustine of Hippo>} produces the results:

The same approach can be used for Personal Letters: {Label Personal Letter WHERE Author ~ <Biography Peter Damian> AND Date ~ <Date 1040 – 1041> AND Recipient ~ "Honestus"}. Limit author or by author and recipient: {Label Personal Letter WHERE Author ~ <Biography Peter Damian> AND Recipient ~ "Honestus"}.

Author and recipient:

To my surprise, this technique does not work reliably with Journal Article as the Label appears to have been applied only to the title, not the content of the journal article.

Tagged or untagged

How does one know whether to use <Person Jesus> or Jesus? As you run more searches over a broader range of resources, you will develop a sense of the tagging to expect on the various library resource types. Until you are comfortable with your judgment, there is a simple test: Run the following three options against the same resources:

• datatype alone
• datatype and text
• text alone

The “right” answer depends upon your needs:

• Are you looking for 1 or 2 resources that answer a question OR are you looking for all resources that contain the information?
• Are your favorite resources listed or omitted? If they are omitted, do you have the same trust in the reliability of the resources listed?
• Are all the resources from the same tradition or publishing house? Do you need results that are broader in perspective.

The example above looks at resources that are all of the same type. Compare with a mix of resource types: