New Resources: Author Guides

I just got done looking through this resource, and it definitely seems like a helpful and interesting way to further integrate our library resources and to find relevant material. I especially liked that there was an index towards the end to find what Luther taught on various topics. Still, as I looked through it, I had mixed feelings about whether I would want this sort of thing as a separate resource versus just having the information and links available from within Factbook itself. Right now I am leaning towards rather having it integrated so I don't have two separate guides to work through and then have to try figuring out what what information is unique to each one. Regardless, I think the kind of organization that has been done here looks impressive and scholarly -- or at least until I got to the very end and saw that the very first source listed was Wikipedia. With all those resources on Luther linked throughout the resource, was it really necessary to resort to Wikipedia for information? [:P]

Sean Boisen said:

Our current designs for Library and Info don't support the kind of linkage you're imagining

That's unfortunate. I really like author pages, eg on Logos & Amazon. It would be great for discoverability, to point to these new resources from the Library. Even if it were a simple highlighted link. If there were going to be a lot of these Author Guides, a Spotlight on the Author type card on the Home page for desktop & web might be another cool way to make these more discoverable?

Organizationally, I wish the Biographical Resources section was moved toward the end, near Bibliography. That endless list of resources breaks the flow when you want to browse the informational part of the resource. The Notables and Quotes definitely should be placed ahead, IMO.

Other than those minor nits, I really do love the resource and organization. Compliments to the author. It seems very thorough and well linked, not just to other resources but to features within Logos, eg to Factbook. Looking forward to more of them. Possibly expanding into other areas? Theology Guides on individual topics (Open Theism, Calvinism, Dispensationalism), possibly also Denominational or Movement Guides. Please do all my searching and researching and organizing for me!

Hi. 

This probably deserves a different thread, but it relates to this resource, and I am not sure if the issue relates specifically to this resource's tagging.

I was looking at the the Friends and Associates section. The names in this section are linked to Factbook searches. Many of which return no results (Library size 8500 resources).

Johannes Oecolampadius produces some results including an image in the media section that corresponds to the image in this resource:

The next entry, John Frederick produces no results ... NOT EVEN THE IMAGE of John Frederick in the resource, or the media entry for John Frederick which has his name in the title.

I can understand that there may not be specific encyclopaedia articles for John Frederick but why should factbook not return his image, which clearly is there?

Thanks.

Just another sales tool.

Can a category be added to Reading Status for Author Guides and will they always be a temporary license?

Bradley Grainger (Faithlife) said:

What would be displayed in this new "Author Guides" column for each row?

" rel="nofollow">Keep Smiling 4 Jesus said:

Ideally Author Guide column would have Author Guide name(s) that reference a resource (so can sort Library by Author Guide, similar to Author sorting).

This is what I envisioned would be the case too. My suggestion looks to the future when we have many more Author Guides.

There are currently four author guides available: Luther, Edwards, Irenaeus & Warfield. It's approximately six months since we have seen any new guides.  Is there plans for more to come  or had this idea been shelved?

Thanks Sean for the update. I think they are a valuable addition but understand the need to balance priorities. Hope time is good found to some more if them. Because there is only a small number they might get overlooked in our library or resources but realistically you will only be able to a small subset of authors.

Sean Boisen said:

I'm still hoping to make more Author Guides, but we've prioritized other work recently which has put Author Guides on the back burner.

We're always open to suggestions for

• authors for which it would be valuable to have a Guide like these
• any features that would improve Author Guides

This is admittedly a bit old. Is Faithlife still interested in hearing feedback on these guides, or has the new improved Factbook replaced this?

Looking at the Logos 9 Feature Sets, it even looks like you are writing one of them, MJ...

I went over the Luther and Irenaeus guides since those are guides where I knew the them the best. Most of my comments will be about Luther...

Overview: Both are decent traditional overviews. That is not to say there are not some quibbles that can be made about them, but they do serve as a useful introduction to both figures. For an example of quibbles, Luther was technically not a Monk, but rather a Friar. That said, in his context it appears to have been quite common to describe Luther's order as Monks... While I do appreciate having an easy to read introduction like this, having some footnotes for the assertions would be nice.

Timeline: Getting the details of the dates for historical figures can be incredibly complicated. Some things are admittedly easy, but many are not. And what events should be included? For example, it is actually debated if Luther did actually post the 95 Theses on 31 October 1517, or if that was just an early legend. And the fact that Luther was in Electoral Saxony with a pending Election of a Holy Roman Emperor was probably pretty significant for the lack of early action against Luther. So while having a timeline like those provided is good, it would be much better if included links to some sources - or even a note saying what chronology you are using...

Social Network: This is actually pretty cool. In general, it is clear and well organized. But it seems to me an odd reading of the English Reformation to describe Henry VIII as playing a key role in the separation of church and state when it seems like he was insisting that Royal power was over the church. And much of historiography after the Nag Hammadi and related finds has generally argued that the Heresies have roots older than the figures Irenaeus mentions, with more recent scholars finding in Irenaeus Irenaeus's frustrations at how diverse these teachers are... So while these statements are useful to a point, like just about every summary, they are in danger of over simplifying.

Geography: It would be lovely if this had a link to a map. I like how in Irenaeus it both has the modern nation mentioned as well as that from the actual time period. I would like it if this could be added for Luther, since "Germany", "Austria" and "Italy" did not exist in Luther's time - at least in anything like the modern sense.

Biographical Resources: Two major criticisms.

1. The first thing I learned about text books or reference books is that when you mention them, the most important thing to mention is the author, not the name. But this listing just has the name of the resource with a date. The listing seems to be sorted by resource name, but this includes the articles "A", "An" and "The", which is not the way I was taught to do this.

2. When I look at most of this "Guide", I see it directed mostly at people who are not experts in the field and so need a bit of hand holding. But this section seems more like an exhaustive list of resources that were in the Logos system when the guide was written instead. This has two problems, namely not giving the reader a good place to start and also with the way Logos adds resources, giving a dated listing. I would much rather see a more modest listing written by an expert in the field with a link to a Logos query that can show what the user has in their library with advertising for other resources available in your store.

And a minor quibble. The order of the sections is different between our Luther and Irenaeus guides. If this is going to be a regular thing you offer, consistency in formatting would be good.

Notable Contributions: I like this, especially how it is linked to relevant passages from their works.The article on Irenaeus IMHO shows a Protestant bias by not mentioning his views on Mary or on Church Hierarchy.

Quotations: Some good quotes. I liked how when it was possible, you liked it to a datatype so that it will take you to a resource that has the quote. That said, the translation you use for the Luther quote on Idolatry is not exactly the standard translation - I certainly recognized it and your link will take you to more recent translations of it. But I question why you used that source for it...

Sermons: I like how when a sermon is in multiple resources, you generally group the sermons together with multiple links in each line. I do wish you had a bit more consistency about the order of these links though to the various different translations of the Church Postil.

Personal Letters: Here you are being selective - which in many ways I do appreciate. But there are some inconsistencies. The Cover letter to Archbishop Albrecht is listed as being to him and then the same letter is listed as to "Unknown" when it links to another resource - a resource that Anglicizes his name as "Albert". In general, I wish you would combine different translations of the same letter into one line like you generally did for the sermons.

Bibliography: The organization you have for this section looks like it designed for more modern writers. For Irenaeus, you have a useful listing of his works with estimated dates, both those we have as well as lost works. But for Luther you have no information on when he actually wrote anything. Instead you have dates for English translations. Could you maybe have some of the major writings at least listed by the date Luther actually wrote them? For both of these writers, it would be helpful if you listed translator and/or editor of the editions you list.

Subject Index: I have not worked with the indexes here enough to tell how useful they are in the real world. Both of these figures have been mined for centuries for quotes on topics - often without careful attention to context. And yet we ask this question because we care how these figures spoke about various issues and having a list like this saying where to look for where they talk about things. As I said, I have not spent much time seeing how useful your specific index is. I was not impressed with the link to Adv. Haer. 2.12 for Baptism, but the other references do look useful.

Sources: They are quite thin, especially for Irenaeus. But going to the Theopedia link gives a good example of introducing readers to what is actually debated about Irenaeus - some of which I complained about above.

How do I find these in my library?

Thanks all.