collections resource look up

I don't know if this is a good idea or not, or if I haven't found a way to do it. I was just thinking about it while I was working in L4.

In L3 we had a drop down box in the library where we could select a collection. If I select a collection from the dropdown box I could look up a resource just in that collection.

We don't have such an option anymore in L4 (or I haven't found it). The reason behind this is, that sometimes I want to look up a resource in my library but I do know in which collection it is. I don't want to type in the library and get a whole bunch of other resources where I need to scroll down to look for the title. I know I can use some rules to search, but then I'll be typing a long sentence just to pinpoint the resource especially if the library is large.

I'm also aware that I might use the "mytag" option to tag my resources and then use that rule to pinpoint the resources but I think I'll be doing double work here. Creating collections to search and creating mytags to look up a resource.

Here's a quick example: suppose I created a collection of zondervan titles. Now when studying I would like to lookup some info in the zondervan encyclopedias. If I type encyclopedia in my library I get all kinds of resources and I have to scroll down to look for my particular resource. I can use rules, but then I need to type in something like title:encyclopedia AND pub:zondervan

Although I know that I have a collection for the zondervan titles, I can't use the collection to quickly look up the resource. The collection is used only for searches.

This is a quick example. I know creating a zondervan collection only has about 70-90 resources, but it could also be another kind of collection with hundreds of resources.

If would be nice to be able to have the collections available in "my library" or an extra look up box in "collections" where I can type in a title to look up.

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

Floyd Johnson

I just tried this - go back to the Collections tool and open the collection you want. Find the book you want and click the little blue arrow to the right of that title's listing. Does this do what you want?

Henry Finkle

Floyd, thanks for replying. I do know about that option. What I'm referring to is the possibility to type in a short title to get the book I want from a collection. If I open a collection with maybe 200 resources inside I don't find it very convenient to drag the slider to look for the resource (especially when fast dragging causes lots of lag in L4). I would like to open a collection and have a box where I just type in "theology" perhaps because I know there are maybe only 5 books with the name theology in that collection. This way I can open up a book very quickly without needing to go into my library and typing a whole set of rules with clauses to narrow down the search.

Having an option in my library to choose a collection working together with the my library own look up box, or having an extra look up box where I can enter a keyword in tools - collections would solve that problem.

Again I don't know if this is a good idea because I haven't figure out everything in L4 yet. It just popped up while I was working in L4

Floyd Johnson

Yeah - I wondered if that is what you meant. But since I did not know for sure, I thought it was at least possible to give it a try. I do not know of a way to do what you want at this point.

Mark Barnes

Filtering the Library by collection would be extremely helpful.

MJ. Smith

What I'm referring to is the possibility to type in a short title to get the book I want from a collection.

How would this differ from typing "open short-tile" in the command box? Do you have duplicate short titles?

Henry Finkle

What I'm referring to is the possibility to type in a short title to get the book I want from a collection.

How would this differ from typing "open short-tile" in the command box? Do you have duplicate short titles?

Sorry MJ. I wasn't clear on that. I'm not referring to the short title of a book. If I know the exact title of a book I indeed just type it in the command box. In fact I don't even type "open", I just use the name as I remembered it. e.g. isbe.

With short title in the previous post I meant typing in a short keyword in case I know the book I'm looking for has that keyword in it .e.g. theology. If I type in "theology" in the command box it will just give me a small listing of possible resources which might not show what I'm looking for. If I type it in the library it shows me 612 titles. Yikes[:S] I'll have to scroll around to look for the book or I'll have type a long rule to narrow down the choices.

Now suppose I know that the book I'm looking for is already in a particular collection. If the option was available I could select that collection in my library and type theology in the find box and maybe get only 5 hits. In an instance I would see the book that I was looking for and without typing any long rules.

Creating collections is already there for searching inside the resources of that collection anyway, why not double the usefulness of this option by adding the ability to search for a title of a resource within that collection also.

JimTowler

I can use rules, but then I need to type in something like title:encyclopedia AND pub:zondervan

Henry,

The Library Panel already does a lot of work, without needing to write rules as complete as in your example I quoted above.

All you need is any key words, author, publisher or anything else that might get a hit. You don't even need the whole thing. See my example where I included parts of what might work, and it picked two resources from over 1,000 I have. No fancy tags, collections or anything needed. However, you do need to be able to think of something that will get a hit.

spitzerpl

All you need is any key words, author, publisher or anything else that might get a hit. You don't even need the whole thing. See my example where I included parts of what might work, and it picked two resources from over 1,000 I have. No fancy tags, collections or anything needed. However, you do need to be able to think of something that will get a hit.

A lot of times its worth just throwing some words in there and seeing if it narrows your search enough. If it doesn't just keep typing till it does. e.g. Throw some words up, [hummm 200 hits, well its a dictionary so ], add AND type:dictionary...[ok, that's close enough]

Henry Finkle

Jim, thanks for the helpful tip. It does work like a charm. I never thought about typing short truncated words. In my other example instead of typing "theology" I just typed "sys theo geis" and that narrowed it down.

Still I'd like to have to ability to sort by collections. Another reason is that I can quickly glance at which resources are in which collections or if there are any resources in the wrong collections. Being able to sort the collections could even let me see which of my resources are not in collections.

Thanks for the tip on finding resources. Maybe you have another tip for being able to see which of my resources are not in collections? That would also be very helpful.

Mark Barnes

Maybe you have another tip for being able to see which of my resources are not in collections?

Depending on how many collections you have, you could create a collection of all resources (rating:>=0) then add each of your other collections into the 'minus these resources' box.

spitzerpl

Maybe you have another tip for being able to see which of my resources are not in collections?

Depending on how many collections you have, you could create a collection of all resources (rating:>=0) then add each of your other collections into the 'minus these resources' box.

true, but how cool would it be to create a collection named Authors with the rule collection:Author-. then if you have collections named things like Author-Piper and Author-MacArthur it would pull in both those collections. And when you add another author collection to your collections list it would be dynamically added to your Authors list. Plus the above "uncollected" collection would be as simple as collection:*

Henry Finkle

Maybe you have another tip for being able to see which of my resources are not in collections?

Depending on how many collections you have, you could create a collection of all resources (rating:>=0) then add each of your other collections into the 'minus these resources' box.

Thanks Mark. That would work, but it's kind of a long way of doing it. I would also have to include any new collections I create into that collection every time. Being able to sort in the library would do all that work for me in an instant and automatically.

martin lohstroh

Bump. #4 on uservoice.