Bible Background Collection @ Mark Barnes in particular

This is my Bible backgrounds collection which I got from I believe John Fallahee, if memory serves.  If you want to use this string, you just start a collection in L4 and copy and paste it into the "Start with resources matching" box.  Not sure if it's what you're looking for, but it's one possibility.

(title:(manner,custom,background,archaeolog, archeolog) OR subject:(manner,custom,"New Testament--Background","Jews", "Judaism") OR (subject:(excavation,archaeolog,archeolog, antiquities) AND type:dictionary)) ANDNOT subject:(canon,doctrine,"Jews--Conversion", "Hebrew Language")

I just set mine up as John Murphy does his and it picked up my dictionaries just fine....

Floyd Johnson said:

Here is my collection:

(title:(manner,custom,background,archaeolog, archeolog) OR subject:(manner,custom)
      OR (subject:("iron age", excavation,archaeolog,archeolog, antiquities) AND type:(dictionary,encyclopedia)))
      ANDNOT subject:(canon,doctrine)

This missed Holman's Bible Atlas which has a lot of Background stuff.

steve clark said:

Tom said:

but the issue is that type:dictionary ONLY pulled in those two resources (both word dictionaries).

Had the same problem. Bradley pointed me to this link http://community.logos.com/forums/t/24033.aspx

Thanks Steve - was just about to point to this, but saw your comment before posting.

Sorry for not replying to this much earlier. I was in a tent in France when you posted, and the time I arrived home your post had long left the recent posts screen. I just found it whilst googling my name!

In case it's still useful, I currently have three 'background' collections. I do some post-grad work that forces me to look at background a lot, so my current set-up might be overkill, though.

Background: Graeco-Roman (17 resources for me)
title:(greco,graeco) OR subject:(greco,graeco,"Christianity and other religions--Greek", "Christianity and other religions--Roman", "Greece--Religion", "New Testament--Greek-Roman")
plus a few additional resources (Christ's Body in Corinth, Conversion at Corinth, Doing Things With Words in the First Christian Century, The Elders, Neither Jew nor Greek, and Paul and His World)

Background: Judaism (139 resources for me)
(title:("second temple", jps, qumran, targum, "dead sea", "rabbinical", "ascension of isaiah") OR subject:("Judaism--Influence",targum, "second temple", qumran, "dead sea", "rabbinical", "Palestine--History--To 70 A.D.", "Jews--History--586 B.C.-70 A.D.", mishnah, "Philo", josephus, "Judaism--Encyclopedias", "ascension of isaiah", "Jews--History--168 B.C.-135 A.D.", "Judaism--History--Talmudic period") OR author:(Josephus, Philo) OR (subject:(apocrypha, pseudepigrapha) AND subject:("O.T.", "Old Testament"))  OR mytag:"Second Temple") ANDNOT author:"Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon" AND lang:english
plus a few additional resources (Dictionary of New Testament Background and A Marginal Jew)

Bible Background (210 resources for me)
(title:(manner,custom,background,archaeolog, archeolog) OR subject:(manner,custom,"New Testament—Background","Jews", "Judaism", antiquities, "christianity--origin", historiography, palestine, qumran, rabinnic*, talmud) OR (subject:(excavation,archaeolog,archeolog, antiquities) AND type:dictionary)) ANDNOT subject:(canon,doctrine,"Jews—Conversion", "Hebrew Language")
plus the two earlier collections

Tom C said:

I'm looking for some pointers in setting up a Bible Background Collection.

Rather than building a very complex rule for building a dynamic collection I find that just tagging the books is MUCH easier and does not miss things. When I get a new book I simply decide what collection or collections I want it in and tag is right away. Since I have a controlled vocabulary (limited list of words) for the tagging it is all very easy.The tags build their own "dynamic" collections that I can use in guides or directly in searches.

Here are the Bible indexed (have Bible milestones) resources that I have tagged as Bible background commentaries.

Here are the non-Bible indexed resources I have tagged as having good background material.

I have tagged some resources as having "original documents" that might relate to Bible backgrounds. Just two of these are at the bottom of the screenshot above.

Here is how I use Bible background commentaries, and Bible background books in a passage guide.

Take you pick. You can either write convoluted dynamic collection formulae (that may not always catch every thing) or you simply go through you library and put each resource where you want it. I vote for the tagging method. Then use dynamic collections to build supersets of the tagged collections.

Doc B said:

At least now, when I get new resources, I tag them when they arrive.

I tagged nearly 3000 resources with about less than 40 hours of effort and I did not have base from which to start. You are lucky, you can used open one of your rule based collections give all the books in it the same tag.

It really pays to open each book in your library (just one volume will do for sets) a decide where to put it.  On the info panel and read the blurb, and notice how it is indexed (Bible indexed resources should I think be tagged different then the others). That may be enough to tell you how to tag it. If not look at the table on contents. I have sledom had to go as far as reading part of an article.Here is my tagging system.  6521.A Controlled Vocabulary for Logos Book Tags.doc

Do what you need to, but I strongly recommend migrating to tagging as fast as you can.

Frank Fenby said:

Take you pick. You can either write convoluted dynamic collection formulae (that may not always catch every thing) or you simply go through you library and put each resource where you want it. I vote for the tagging method. Then use dynamic collections to build supersets of the tagged collections.

I don't think we need to choose only one of these methods. There are two great advantages of dynamic collections. (1) It will capture some books that otherwise you would miss. (2) It will automatically add new books into the collection.

Tags, on the other hand, are both simpler and more precise.

My own practice, therefore is:

1. Where collections are going to be subjective, I build collections only using tags. For example, I have a collection called 'Intermediate Commentaries'. The collection rule is simply type:commentary mytag:intermediate
2. Where collections are easy to define, I build collections only using a rule. For example, I have a collection called 'English Bibles'. The collection rule is simply type:bible lang:english
3. Where collections are more complex, I build collections using a combination of tags and a rule. In particular, I think it definately worthwhile to identify which subjects are common to the resources you want in your collection and use that in a rule to bring in more resources that you wouldn't necessarily have thought of. In this case collection rules tend to look something like mytag:exampletag OR subject:(example1, example2, example3). For some collections you can also add OR title(example1, example2) as well. For all their apparent complexity all the collections I posted above basically follow that pattern.
   

My own feeling is that gives the best of both worlds. However, this is definately an area where we need to develop strategies that work for us. Because I frequently add to my library, and because my library is large, and because I like algebra and logic, then dynamic rules (with a bit of help from tags) certainly works best for me.

Mark Barnes said:

I don't think we need to choose only one of these methods.

Agreed. I just like using tags at the root level because it insures that I have examined each resource, or set of resources like a multivolume commentary.