I agree this is an important issue. There is more content that needs to
be included in the conf file, such as author, editor, original
publisher, publication date, etc. In fact, one solution might be to add
a BibTeX field to conf files. That would be a standard format that
pretty much all bibliographic programs should be able to handle, and the
standard is open source. Perhaps more to the point than adding numerous
conf fields, just like the LCSH field, a BibTeX field would be a great
way to make sure that adequate bibliographic information was in every
new module. Old modules would need to have conf files updated and the
wiki page would need to explain how to create BibTeX entries.
Thankfully, though, many libraries would have the necessary information
and programs like Zotero have BibTeX export, so it would be very easy to
create a BibTeX entry, assuming that you have accurate information about
the edition upon which a module is based. It would be cool if front-ends
offered the ability to create a citation and bibliographic entry for
users to work from, but perhaps just exposing the raw BibTeX entry would
be sufficient.
As to citing something when there aren't page numbers, it depends on the
citation style you are using (Chicago, SBL, Turabian, APA, MLA,
etc.--probably all American styles, but, hey, I'm American...). I am
working on the style guide for my school right now, and it provides for
cases like this. You basically choose the style of reference based on
what the resource has. If it is the Summa (which I cited in my paper for
my PhD application, and the source was the CrossWire module), there are
traditional divisions to be followed. If it is a commentary, I think the
best solution (given that there are no page numbers available in any
commentaries that I am aware of) is to give the verse or verse range
where you can find the source for the citation. So, a rough
pseudo-Turabian bibliographic example might be:
Keil, Karl Friedrich, and Franz Delitzsch. /Commentary on the Old
Testament/. Translated by James Martin. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1973;
electronic ed. CrossWire Bible Society, 2009.
The citation might be:
Karl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, /Commentary on the Old
Testament/, trans. James Martin (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1973;
electronic ed. CrossWire Bible Society, 2009), Isaiah 1:1.
The problem is that Turabian 7th ed. only envisions CD-ROM resources,
but CrossWire resources are downloaded. Thus the examples above follow
how Logos formats this type of thing.
To reiterate, I think your email touches on an important issue. I would
be willing to contribute on this since I have been working on this stuff
already. There just needs to be consensus from developers on whether
adding a BibTeX entry to the conf file is a feasible solution.
Daniel
On 3/13/2010 12:18 PM, Peter von Kaehne wrote:
This is probably a silly question for the developer's list, but given
that here is likely the largest audience of people who have been in
the same situaation:
I understand some of you have attended seminary and ussed the software
in the process of this to write essays etc. I am in the same position
right now. The lecturers are not too strict on proper bibliography etc
(at least right now) , but I would prefer to be accurate and proper.
So, how do you quote e.g. a commentary in an essay - if you have no
page numbers etc? Sometimes the sections are there, so this is not a
problem, but on several occasions I found nothing. What have others
done in such situations?
Another related matter: some commentaries do have very decent
config/about sections which will suffice to give enough bibliographic
detail (and mention CrossWire) for most essays, but some also do not.
We should probably, if we want our software not just be useful to the
casual user, ensure that our about sections are as explicit and
detailed as possible. I think we should consider "unquotable" modules
as buggy.
Peter
_______________________________________________
sword-devel mailing list: sword-devel@crosswire.org
http://www.crosswire.org/mailman/listinfo/sword-devel
Instructions to unsubscribe/change your settings at above page
_______________________________________________
sword-devel mailing list: sword-devel@crosswire.org
http://www.crosswire.org/mailman/listinfo/sword-devel
Instructions to unsubscribe/change your settings at above page
