So today I was asked to do something seemingly simple; I was asked because of my large library and Logos/Verbum. I was asked to find the milestones/references for the works of Alexander of Alexandria, best known as Athanasius' mentor.
- One known difficulty, little of his writings are preserved; his letters are often preserved because they are included in others' work. So, the milestone likely don't include his name.
- ISSUE working as designed: Factbook lists 5 sources - but at the book level not at the work level so that even though I own a Migne volume, there is no way I can find the text.
- Roberts, Alexander, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, eds. Fathers of the Third Century: Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius. Vol. 6. The Ante-Nicene Fathers. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1886. does include Letters by Alexander of Alexandria but his identity is well hidden. ISSUE: Running the search at the bottom of Factbook fails to find him in the volume at all.
- Fortunately, I know to go to Fourth Century Christianity » Alexander of Alexandria and Fourth Century Christianity » Documents of the Early Arian Controversy for the actual works and multiple references to standard works where they may be found. NOTE: I did try some search in addition to the prebuilt search from Factbook. None got me the information I needed.
- So, I take the website title "Arius and other Alexandrian clergy to Alexander pleading his cause" and reference in Schaff, find the letter embedded in Athanasius, and get the milestone athanasius:"On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia 16"
- So, I take another website title "Alexander’s encyclical letter on Arius’ deposition" and the reference in Schaff, identify the text only to discover ISSUE Logos in its usual inconsistency did not give this patristic text a milestone. Another simple task where the lack of consistent, task oriented data shows the shortcomings not the strengths of Logos.
@Mark Barnes (Logos) and @Kyle G. Anderson I suggest that you create a way that encourages actual users to walk Logos staff through tasks such as this were Logos falls flat - encourages users to take the considerable time it takes to explain the task, give Logos an opportunity to provide a way to achieve the desired results if the problem is with the user not the software, and gives visible evidence that Logos listens to where things fail and makes effort to improve those areas. And, yes, I readily admit sometimes the user has unrealistic expectations of the software.
