Updated LCV

Mark Barnes
Mark Barnes Member Posts: 15,432 ✭✭✭
edited November 20 in English Forum

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?

This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!

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Comments

  • Ron
    Ron Member Posts: 1,229

    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
    Rosie Perera Member Posts: 26,202 ✭✭✭✭✭


    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
    Dave Hooton MVP Posts: 35,770

    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

    Dave
    ===

    Windows 11 & Android 13

  • Ron
    Ron Member Posts: 1,229

    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
    Todd Phillips Member Posts: 6,735 ✭✭✭

    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!

    MacBook Pro (2019), ThinkPad E540

  • Ted Hans
    Ted Hans MVP Posts: 3,171

    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?

    1.  The Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia
    2.  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

    Dell, studio XPS 7100, Ram 8GB, 64 - bit Operating System, AMD Phenom(mt) IIX6 1055T Processor 2.80 GHZ

  • Mark Barnes
    Mark Barnes Member Posts: 15,432 ✭✭✭

    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.

    This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!

  • Rosie Perera
    Rosie Perera Member Posts: 26,202 ✭✭✭✭✭

    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
    MJ. Smith MVP Posts: 53,409

    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]

    Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."

  • Sean Boisen
    Sean Boisen Member, Logos Employee Posts: 1,452

    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
    BillS Member Posts: 3,805 ✭✭✭

    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.

    Grace & Peace,
    Bill


    MSI GF63 8RD, I-7 8850H, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, 2TB HDD, NVIDIA GTX 1050Max
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  • Sean Boisen
    Sean Boisen Member, Logos Employee Posts: 1,452

    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
    Paul M Member Posts: 647 ✭✭

    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
    Sean Boisen Member, Logos Employee Posts: 1,452

    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.

  • Murray W
    Murray W Member Posts: 117 ✭✭

    Hiya - it's six months since the last comment. Are the IVP Dictionaries any closer to being included in the LCV?

  • Kevin Becker
    Kevin Becker Member Posts: 5,604 ✭✭✭

    Hiya - it's six months since the last comment. Are the IVP Dictionaries any closer to being included in the LCV?

    Sean has said in another thread (January) that the IVP Black Dictionaries are slated to be in the next LCV update, when they haven't said

    http://community.logos.com/forums/p/27679/210611.aspx#210611

  • Sean Boisen
    Sean Boisen Member, Logos Employee Posts: 1,452

    Hiya - it's six months since the last comment. Are the IVP Dictionaries any closer to being included in the LCV?

    I can state authoritatively that they are closer. [:)]

  • Kevin Becker
    Kevin Becker Member Posts: 5,604 ✭✭✭

    I can state authoritatively that they are closer. Smile

    And I can state that they are showing up today! Thanks! [Y]

  • Rosie Perera
    Rosie Perera Member Posts: 26,202 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I can state authoritatively that they are closer. Smile

    And I can state that they are showing up today! Thanks! Yes

    Yippy-ti-yi-yo! [:)]

  • Murray W
    Murray W Member Posts: 117 ✭✭

    Wonderful news. When Logos stops crashing on my PC and starts loading properly on my Mac I will be really excited to start using them!

  • Floyd  Johnson
    Floyd Johnson Member Posts: 4,007 ✭✭✭

    Okay - I appreciate the availability of the LCV, but I am not sure how to make use of it.  Specifically, how do I make use of the LCV, rather than the surface text?

    Blessings,
    Floyd

    Pastor-Patrick.blogspot.com

  • Rosie Perera
    Rosie Perera Member Posts: 26,202 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Okay - I appreciate the availability of the LCV, but I am not sure how to make use of it.  Specifically, how do I make use of the LCV, rather than the surface text?

    You don't need to consciously do anything about it to make use of it. But the fact that there is LCV underlying the surface text is why you get the TOPIC section at the top of a search for a common keyword in your Entire Library:

    image

    That section will keep getting better and better the more dictionaries/encyclopedias they tag with LCV.

    One significant note, though: you do have to search in your Entire Library for the TOPIC section to show up. It doesn't work for searches within Collections. Also if you don't get a TOPIC section, it means the word or phrase you searched for is not in the LCV database. It's made up of all the headword entries in the major Bible dictionaries and encyclopedias, so it should include most every person, place, Bible book, significant theological term, etc.

  • Todd Phillips
    Todd Phillips Member Posts: 6,735 ✭✭✭

    MacBook Pro (2019), ThinkPad E540

  • steve clark
    steve clark Member Posts: 3,591 ✭✭✭

    Murray,

    for specifics of Rosie's search, see this wiki article: Topic found in Basic Search

    QLinks, Bibl2, LLR, Macros
    Dell Insp 17-5748, i5, 1.7 GHz, 8G RAM, win 8.1

  • Floyd  Johnson
    Floyd Johnson Member Posts: 4,007 ✭✭✭

    Thank you everyone - I had done a search on the Wiki just this morning (or was it yesterday?) for "Logos Controlled Vocabulary" but spotted nothing of interest in the results.  It might have been a function of the person looking at the results, but the comments here did help.

    Thank you again.

    Blessings,
    Floyd

    Pastor-Patrick.blogspot.com

  • steve clark
    steve clark Member Posts: 3,591 ✭✭✭

    I had done a search on the Wiki just this morning (or was it yesterday?) for "Logos Controlled Vocabulary" but spotted nothing of interest in the results.

    Sean from Logos started this wiki page About Topic Search, where he describes some about LCV (Logos Controlled Vocabulary)


    Now: Topics in Logos 4

    Logos 4 uses a new approach to try and make topical search more
    powerful, thorough, and consistent. The foundation is the Logos
    Controlled Vocabulary (LCV), which organizes a defined set of concepts,
    the keywords that can be used to describe them, and links to the
    dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other subject-oriented resources that
    organize content this way (many resources don’t).

    QLinks, Bibl2, LLR, Macros
    Dell Insp 17-5748, i5, 1.7 GHz, 8G RAM, win 8.1

  • Sean Boisen
    Sean Boisen Member, Logos Employee Posts: 1,452

    Okay - I appreciate the availability of the LCV, but I am not sure how to make use of it.  Specifically, how do I make use of the LCV, rather than the surface text?

    One easily overlooked aspect of the LCV is that it links a Biblical People/Places/Things page to associated dictionary content (via the grey strip at the top, that we call the "infosheet": you may have to click the right arrow to see the content).

  • Dave Hooton
    Dave Hooton MVP Posts: 35,770

    One easily overlooked aspect of the LCV is that it links a Biblical People/Places/Things page to associated dictionary content

    Thanks Sean - it was easily overlooked!

    Dave
    ===

    Windows 11 & Android 13

  • Sean Boisen
    Sean Boisen Member, Logos Employee Posts: 1,452

    One easily overlooked aspect of the LCV is that it links a Biblical People/Places/Things page to associated dictionary content

    Thanks Sean - it was easily overlooked!

    Here's another: the Topics section of the Passage Guide is constructed by taking the dictionary content for LCV concepts, extracting the references, doing some complex math to identify the strength and uniqueness of the association between a reference to a concept, and presenting a weighted list of results. So in the tag cloud view, the big concepts represents a combination of associations repeated across many dictionaries, and those that are more unique to this reference-concept pair. (usually you have to expand the "..." to get the whole view).  This can help you discover relationships to concepts you might not have guessed from the passage in question: for example, what's the connection between John 3:3-7 and Justin Martyr? (you'll have to own Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary to find out)

  • Dave Hooton
    Dave Hooton MVP Posts: 35,770

    This can help you discover relationships to concepts you might not have guessed from the passage in question: for example, what's the connection between John 3:3-7 and Justin Martyr? (you'll have to own Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary to find out)

    I was interested to see what that passage would reveal from my resources but disappointed to find that Tyndale Bible Dictionary was not included in List topics like

    • Amen (2 x Topical Index were preferred)
    • Birth, new  (unique to TBD)
    • Jesus christ, teachings of  (unique to TBD)
    • Kingdom of God (2 x Topical bibles preferred)
    • Life (Topical Index preferred)
    • etc.

    The content of TBD is more meaningful than a reference in a Topical Bible/Index!

    Dave
    ===

    Windows 11 & Android 13