Updated LCV

There doesn't seem to have been any posts on the updated LCV, which is strange since several of us have been clamouring for it to be updated! We've been told that there are seven new dictionaries. Here's the ones I can spot:

New Nave's Topical Bible
Easton's Bible Dictionary
Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Dictionary
Harper's Bible Dictionary
The Archaeological Encyclopaedia of the Holy Land (I think)

Any suggestions as to the others?

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Ron

Is there a wiki page or FAQ page somewhere that fully explains the LCV? What it is, how it works, how to make use of it, what benefits it offers, etc...

I understand the very basics of it, but I'd like to more fully understand it.

Rosie Perera

There doesn't seem to have been any posts on the updated LCV, which is strange since several of us have been clamouring for it to be updated! We've been told that there are seven new dictionaries. Here's the ones I can spot:

New Nave's Topical Bible

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Harper's Bible Dictionary

The Archaeological Encyclopaedia of the Holy Land (I think)

Any suggestions as to the others?

I don't know what the list included before the latest update, so I don't know what's new. But in addition to the ones you've already spotted, I can identify these that are in it:

Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary
New Bible Dictionary, Third Edition
Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible
Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible
Eerdmans Bible Dictionary
Tyndale Bible Dictionary
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised
Smith's Bible Dictionary
New Unger's Bible Dictionary

And yes The Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land is in it (with the American spelling of Encyclopedia but the British spelling of Archaeological; not at all logical)

It's great that they're making progress, but there are so many more books that need to be added to this: Encyclopedia of Christianity, Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, New International Dictionary of the Christian Church, Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible, Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals, Biographical Entries from New 20th-Century Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Handbook of Evangelical Theologians, all the IVP dictionaries in the Essential IVP Reference Collection, Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible, Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible. etc.

Dave Hooton

Is there a wiki page or FAQ page somewhere that fully explains the LCV? What it is, how it works, how to make use of it, what benefits it offers, etc...

There are other threads but see http://community.logos.com/forums/p/12424/97026.aspx#97026

Ron

Is there a wiki page or FAQ page somewhere that fully explains the LCV? What it is, how it works, how to make use of it, what benefits it offers, etc...

There are other threads but see http://community.logos.com/forums/p/12424/97026.aspx#97026

Thanks [:)]

Todd Phillips

Smith's Bible Dictionary
New Unger's Bible Dictionary

I believe these are new also, and that would make seven.

It's great that they're making progress, but there are so many more books that need to be added to this: Encyclopedia of Christianity, Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, New International Dictionary of the Christian Church, Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible, Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals, Biographical Entries from New 20th-Century Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Handbook of Evangelical Theologians, all the IVP dictionaries in the Essential IVP Reference Collection, Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible, Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible. etc.

Agree so much. Most of the newly included resources ones are plain bible dictionaries, which don't really expand the search results much, since they are very much the same. The in-depth theological dictionaries (esp. IVP) and church history dictionaries are the ones I still long to see show themselves in the Topic results. That will be the day!

Ted Hans

There doesn't seem to have been any posts on the updated LCV, which is strange since several of us have been clamouring for it to be updated! We've been told that there are seven new dictionaries. Here's the ones I can spot:

New Nave's Topical Bible

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Harper's Bible Dictionary

The Archaeological Encyclopaedia of the Holy Land (I think)

Any suggestions as to the others?

The Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia
The New Unger's Bible Dictionary

New Nave's Topical Bible
Easton's Bible Dictionary
Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Dictionary
Harper's Bible Dictionary
The Archaeological Encyclopaedia of the Holy Land

Mark Barnes

Controlled Vocabulary is a standard concept used in many situations. Googling for it will be quite instructive I'm sure. This is from controlledvocabulary.com

What is a
Controlled
Vocabulary, and how is it useful?

Takes the
Guess
Work out of Searching

A controlled vocabulary makes a database easier to search. Since
we have
many different ways of describing concepts, drawing all of these
terms together
under a single word or phrase in a database makes searching the
database more
efficient as it eliminates guess work. However, arriving at this
efficiency
requires consistency on the part of the individual indexing the
database and
the use of pre-determined terms.

A
Familiar Concept

It’s likely you are already familiar with the concept of controlled
vocabulary. Phonebook Yellow Page listings are arranged using
controlled vocabulary.
For example, a search for "Car Dealers" leads you to a note to “see
Automobile Dealers." At a basic level, this is how a controlled
vocabulary
system works.

One
Search is All
it Takes

Conducting a search in a database that uses controlled vocabulary or
indexing
terms is efficient and precise. The biggest advantage to controlled
vocabulary
is that once you do find the correct term, most of the information
you need
is grouped together in one place, saving you the time of having to
search
under all of the other synonyms for that term.

Finding a
Balance

It's difficult to say whether controlled vocabulary or natural
language systems
give the best retrieval performance. Free Text or Natural Language
systems often
provide more results in a shorter time span because you are searching
all the
fields of a given database (the Google search engine is a form of free
text
search). Such searches work well for very specific searches, however,
when a
topic is older or broader in scope, you likely will retrieve
irrelevant hits.
You also may miss some records relevant to your search because you
didn't choose
the proper search term. As with a web search, searching a database
requires
striking a balance between preciseness and generating enough hits to
make the
search successful.

Rosie Perera

Controlled Vocabulary is a standard concept used in many situations. Googling for it will be quite instructive I'm sure. This is from controlledvocabulary.com

Thanks, Mark. That is very helpful! Almost worth posting on a "MVPs Speak" wiki page... [:)]

MJ. Smith

The in-depth theological dictionaries (esp. IVP) and church history dictionaries are the ones

And I want the Jewish and Catholic encyclopedias ... but I don't know a really great source for the Orthodox/Church of the East ... they are what will broaden the coverage the most rather than fill-in the gaps of the existing vocabulary. Besides, they are where I have the most reading lists.[:D]

Sean Boisen

Hard to keep up with all you folks! The LCV updates will go out with the 4.1 release (though available to beta users now of course). Here's the authoritative list of new dictionaries added:

Archaeological Encyclopaedia of the Holy Land
Easton's Bible Dictionary
Harper's Bible Dictionary
Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Dictionary
Smith's Bible Dictionary
Unger's Bible Dictionary
Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia
New Nave's Topical Bible

We've got our process streamlined a bit now, so I expect we will be releasing updates with greater frequency (this is the first one since the Logos 4.0 release last November). While i don't want to talk about plans too far out in front of our releases, the next release (which is not scheduled yet) will include the Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible and, i expect, several other topical indexes (Torrey's, Willmington's Book of Bible Lists, and others).

Our goal is to eventually incorporate all the resources that are appropriate for the LCV structure (subject-oriented dictionaries): that should include all or nearly all the others mentioned in this thread.

BillS

updates with greater frequency

eventually incorporate all the resources that are appropriate for the LCV structure

Thanks, Sean--for the updates & for all you folks do for us.

Sean Boisen

Controlled Vocabulary is a standard concept used in many situations.

I'll note that our use of the LCV goes beyond what's typical for other controlled vocabularies. While it's definitely designed to help with search, it serves other functions as well:

the LCV provides the framework for Topics in the Passage Guide. The importance of a concept there (reflected by the size in the tag cloud) is determined by how many dictionaries refer to it, how much is said about it, how unique the association between the reference and that concept is, and other factors.
it provides the connections to dictionary content on People/Places/Things pages

We've got some other things in the works as well.

Paul M

Agree so much. Most of the newly included resources ones are plain bible dictionaries, which don't really expand the search results much, since they are very much the same. The in-depth theological dictionaries (esp. IVP) and church history dictionaries are the ones I still long to see show themselves in the Topic results. That will be the day!

I agree very much with Todd's sentiment here. Adding these sort of dictionaries adds a little to these type of searches however adding books like the IVP Essential collection would add greater strength and depth. I think this is especially true as I think I remember reading that the IVP collection is amongst the most popular products.

Sean Boisen

Agree so much. Most of the newly included resources ones are plain bible dictionaries, which don't really expand the search results much, since they are very much the same. The in-depth theological dictionaries (esp. IVP) and church history dictionaries are the ones I still long to see show themselves in the Topic results. That will be the day!

I agree too. We're trying to prioritize the resources that most people have, and there were some other business reasons to prefer these simpler Bible dictionaries. But we're definitely looking to integrate the deeper resources as soon as we can.