Author Guides are a new kind of library resource, which provide comprehensive overviews to the life and writings of important authors.
Faithlife's Content Innovation team curates key information on the author's life, social network, and most notable contributions, enriched by links to Factbook, Media, Timeline, and other features of your Logos library. Hundreds of links to writings, sermons, personal letters, and biographical material are collected together and organized for easy access.
The Subject Index directs you to material on important topics, and selected quotations with accompanying slides make it easy to present or share key insights with others.
These unique guides bring the author's contributions to life, adding new value to your Logos library.
We welcome your feedback!
Adam Borries | Product Manager, Logos desktop application
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When do you expect these to hit mobile devices? A day or two later as usual?
The Luther Author Guide is available on all platforms now. Other titles TBA.
Adam, I am a Logos Now member but cannot find this resource anywhere. How do we get to it? God bless you!
Richard Labelle: Adam, I am a Logos Now member but cannot find this resource anywhere. How do we get to it? God bless you!
Hi Richard,
The product should show up in our library soon. It could take a few hours or so for the license to update. If you are using the desktop app, try typing "Update resources" into the command box in a few hours.
Senior Director, Content Products
Cool! Looks like a great reference. I only wish that it were integrated. Eg if I type 'martin luther' or 'author:"martin luther"' in library it would be cool if there was a banner entry at the top of the library pointing to this resource. I'd like to see a link from the info pane to this resource from works authored by Martin Luther. (desktop & mobile) Additionally, a backlink from Factbook would be cool, either at the top under the main entry or at least in the See Also.
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Randy W. Sims: Cool! Looks like a great reference. I only wish that it were integrated. Eg if I type 'martin luther' or 'author:"martin luther"' in library it would be cool if there was a banner entry at the top of the library pointing to this resource. I'd like to see a link from the info pane to this resource from works authored by Martin Luther. (desktop & mobile) Additionally, a backlink from Factbook would be cool, either at the top under the main entry or at least in the See Also.
Hi Randy:
Thanks for the suggestions. Our current designs for Library and Info don't support the kind of linkage you're imagining, but we will definitely add a backlink from Factbook.
This is still not showing on my iPad. I haven't tried my computer yet
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?
Thanks Faithlife for this interesting and useful resource. Its well set out and easy to use. The subject index links to "Luther's Works" in particular will help to open up and enable greater use of that collection. For me that's quite a bonus! Keep well Paul
Sean Boisen: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!
Can you guys have Faithlife's Content Innovation team to fix the "Collection"..
They're hardly updated and there are so many mistakes on the rules & books that aren't suppose to be there (or lack there of)
Faithlife's Content Innovation team should be able to come up with the tons of official Collections, rather than waiting for users to create our own.
It would help us a lot.
It would even make this "Author Guides" obsolete if you fix your "Collection"
Thanks Adam
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.
2010 17" MBP with High Sierra, iPad4 with iOS10.
mike:Can you guys have Faithlife's Content Innovation team to fix the "Collection"..
Great question, Mike. I've responded here, so we can continue the discussion without hijacking this Author Guides thread.
mike:It would even make this "Author Guides" obsolete if you fix your "Collection"
I don't think so. Collections are primarily used for searching within the contents of the resources in the collection, while Author Guides are a summary of the author's life and work. Collections, by definition, contain only resources in your library, while Author Guides curate links to hundreds of resources you may or may not already have access to. Am I missing something you have in mind?
Just another sales tool.
I think the new author guides are very useful, and I would like to see FL add guides for other areas, as Randy mentioned.
Thanks, FL!
Whyndell Grizzard: Just another sales tool.
That's fine with me. It's a useful way to discover specific resources that I hadn't been aware of.
Thanks to FL for including Carta and a Hebrew audio bible in Logos 9!
Martin Folley: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?
Hi Martin,
That was a tagging issue on our end. It should be resolved now and the image should appear on the Factbook page for John Frederick.
Thanks for bringing that to our attention!
Matthew:With all those resources on Luther linked throughout the resource, was it really necessary to resort to Wikipedia for information?
Hi Matthew,
I generally use Wikipedia as a jumping off point and for getting an overview of individuals, especially when diving into the social network section. I make sure to verify any information from a source against other resources as well, including primary works from the author (if available). Not to worry, Wikipedia is used with caution.
I'm glad you've found this new resource to be helpful and thank you for your feedback!
Martin Folley: 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).
Martin, thanks for your comments. Since we're reaching farther into the author's history with these guides, not all the individuals are common in church history, so it's not surprising that some aren't found elsewhere in your library. In fact, some (like Georg Rörer) don't even have a Factbook page (yet: maybe someday). But since our goal is to go deeper into the author's background, we felt it was important to include these individuals even if there's not much else in the library.
There's a similar observation with many of the links in Sermons and Subject Index: depending on your library, many of these links may show up as locks (meaning you don't own the resource). We've tried to emphasize resources that are in many base collections, but also include resources to add value for those who have an expanded set of the author's works. In some cases you'll see multiple links for the same sermon, where it occurs in multiple works: you may own one and not the other, so we've tried to cover multiple options.
PetahChristian: I think the new author guides are very useful, and I would like to see FL add guides for other areas, as Randy mentioned. Thanks, FL! Whyndell Grizzard: Just another sales tool. That's fine with me. It's a useful way to discover specific resources that I hadn't been aware of.
I agree. They (Faithlife) have to continue to market somehow. That's ok and understood. I generally look pass the marketing, and extract the relevant things. In this case, I haven't considered the marketing at all, although it's there. :-)