New Resource Types with 9.3

When we released 9.3 last week we included support for 23 new resource types.

Our goal has been to move more titles that are currently classified as “Monograph” to something with more specificity.

Here are the new resource types and a brief description for each new resource type:

New Resource Types

Ancient Manuscript Translation: Ancient Manuscript Translation are translations of Ancient texts from their original language. Ancient texts are those that are from the first millennium or earlier. This is closely related to our existing resource type of “Ancient Manuscript”. 

Autobiography: An autobiography is a self-written account of one's life.

Bible Study: Bible Study resources are resources that are designed to be used by individuals or groups to facilitate study of specific texts of the Bible. They often feature opportunities for question and answer and reflection. They are organized to be completed by the individual or the group in a short period of time. There can be a strong overlap between “Bible Study” and “Study Guide”. Currently we are taking the lead of the publisher but generally speaking “Bible Study” focuses on specific texts of the Bible while “Study Guide” tends to be more thematic in nature.

Bibliography: A bibliography is a list of books for further study.

Biography: A biography is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events.

Catechism: A catechism is a summary or exposition of doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adult converts. Catechisms are doctrinal manuals – often in the form of questions followed by answers to be memorised – a format that has been used in non-religious or secular contexts as well. The “Catechism” resource type might have crossover with the “Confessional Document” resource type. At this time we are trying to limit the “Catechism” resource type to resources that are exclusively a catechism.

Church History: Church history or ecclesiastical history as an academic discipline studies the history of Christianity and the way the Christian Church has developed since its inception.

Collected Work: One or (usually) more books that bring together already-published works by a single author that are edited by a publisher. Collected or Complete Works is a collection of all the cultural works of one artist, writer, musician, group, etc. For example, Complete Works of Shakespeare is an edition containing all the plays and poems of William Shakespeare. A "Complete Works" published edition of a text corpus is normally accompanied with additional information and critical apparatus. It may include notes, introduction, a biographical sketch, and may pay attention to textual variants. Note: There is a strong possibility that we will be refining this work further to differentiate between Complete Works (i.e. the full works of a single author) and Collected Works (i.e. single- or multi-volume books that pull together various material around a single theme, era or other organizational principle.)

Curriculum: Curriculum, unlike “Bible Study” or “Study Guide”, material designed include the totality of a learning process. When describing material as “Curriculum” we are currently taking the publisher lead. Currently this has sparse coverage.

Devotional: Christian devotional literature (also called devotionals or Christian living literature) is religious writing that Christian individuals read for their personal growth and spiritual formation. These are usually daily readings for spiritual reflection and encouragement. Unlike the “Calendar Devotional” resource type, which uses day of the year milestones, the “Devotional” resource type will not follow specific days on a calendar.

Festschrift: A Festschrift is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the honoree's colleagues, former pupils, and friends. Festschriften are often titled something like Essays in Honour of... or Essays Presented to... .

Handbook: A handbook is a type of reference work, or other collection of instructions, that is intended to provide ready reference. Handbooks tend to be brief and portable in their print form.

Illustrations: Illustrations are collections of illustrations or anecdotes meant to be used as teaching or speaking aids.

Lecture: A lecture is a collection of public orations that are not sermons which will receive the “Sermon” resource type.

New/Old Testament Introduction: New or Old Testament Introduction expands on the Old or New Testament resource type by including discussion of critical issues such as theology, themes, authorship, historical setting, etc.

New/Old Testament Survey: New or Old Testament Survey focuses on the content of the various books of the New or Old Testament. A survey tends to be briefer and more cursory than an Introduction.

Personal Journal: A Personal Journal is a collection of the private diary or journal writings of a person.

Quotations: Quotations are a collection of famous quotes. They are often organized thematically and are often meant as a teaching or speaking aid.

Sermon Outlines: Sermon Outlines are a collection of outlines of sermons or potential sermons. They are distinct from the “Sermon” resource type which are edited, or lightly edited, collections of transcripts of sermons.

Study Guide: Study guides can be broad based to facilitate learning for individuals or groups in a number of areas, or be resources that foster comprehension of literature, research topics, history, and other subjects. They often feature opportunities for question and answer and reflection. They are organized to be completed by the individual or the group in a short period of time. There can be a strong overlap between “Bible Study” and “Study Guide”. Currently we are taking the lead of the publisher but generally speaking “Bible Study” focuses on specific texts of the Bible while “Study Guide” tends to be more thematic in nature.

Workbook: A Workbook is a resource that is intended to accompany another resource. It is meant to be a supplement for individuals and groups who wish to explore further study in the main resource. It often includes opportunities for questions and answers and reflection.

Although we made an initial batch of resource type changes, we are still in the process of switching resources to one of these new resource types.

As a caveat, at this point, a single resource can only have one resource type.

We welcome your input in transitioning books in your library to new resource types. There are two main ways this can happen:

Proposing Resource Type Changes

Although we switched approximately 5000 titles to one of these new resource types there are still many that can be switched. If you notice titles that you think can be changed there are two main ways to make a proposal:

• Write a forum post. Here is a great example.
• Make a proposal on Faithlife Feedback. Here is another example.

Proposing New Resource Types

The number of our resource types isn't fixed. We’d like to expand the number of resource types available. If you know of a resource type that we don’t support but you think we should feel free to propose a new resource type.

• I created a new forum post entirely devoted to new resource types. Feel free to add your suggestions there.
• Feel free to write a new post.
• Make a proposal on Faithlife Feedback