This article demonstrates the various facets of your Verbum Library and teaches you how to use the tools associated with it.
Looking for how to use the Verbum library on your mobile device? Learn how.
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View and Edit Book Information
Open the Library
You can open your library in three different ways:
- Click the Library icon
in the toolbar.
- Right-click the Library icon and choose either Open, Open in a new tab, or Open in a floating window.
- Press Ctrl+L (Windows) or Cmd+L (macOS).
A menu appears showing a list of all your books. Click a nook (or double-click it depending on which view you are in) to open it.
Note: This screenshot shows the Library open as a tab.
View Your Books
The library is viewable in three modes. These can be selected from the Views dropdown in the Library toolbar.
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Cover view — Displays the covers of your books in a grid. In this view, open a book by clicking its title, which appears when you hover over the cover.
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Tile view — Displays the covers of your books in a vertical list, along with the author, book category, and tags. In this view, open a book by clicking either its cover or its title.
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Details view — Displays your books in a vertical list with multiple columns showing detailed information about each item. In this view, open a book by clicking its title.
Note: The icon in the toolbar will update to reflect your selected viewing style.
In Tile view and Cover view, you can change the ordering criteria from the dropdown to the left of the view selector.
In Tile view and Details view, you will see a progress ring beside each book. This gives a visual indicator of the total percentage of the book that you have opened and read.
In Details view, right-click at the top of a column to select which columns you want to display. You can also drag the columns from left-to-right so they appear in the order you wish.
You can click the header of some of the columns – such as Title, Publication Date, or Rating – to change the order in which books are presented. But for most columns – such as Type, Series, Subject, or Author – if you click the column header it will group your books by that field. You can then open a group to see corresponding books.
Click the sidebar icon (or press Cmd+Shift+I on a Mac or Ctrl+Shift+I on Windows) to open a set of tabbed panes either providing information about a book or providing the ability to prioritize books. Click the icon on the left to access the information tab and select a book on the left. This displays a summary of the resource, personal and community tags, local download status, a citation, copyright information, and more. You can also reset your reading progress from the information pane by clicking the progress ring and selecting from the available options.
Filter Your Displayed Books
Click the navigation menu icon to open the Filter panel and explore the faceted browsing options available in the Library.
Note: The number displayed immediately beneath the Find box when it is blank reflects the total number of books in the Library. When filters have been applied, this number will change to show the number of matching books.
The filters that display in the column on the left allow you to limit the displayed books by Type of book, Factbook subject (which can provide more specific categories than the Subject filter), user-defined Collection, Reading Status, Date Added, and more.
Use the Library filter search to further narrow your matches. For example, typing spirit in the box matches with any book that has the word spirit in its metadata. With filter fields, however, you can restrict the matches by typing title:spirit to find books with spirit in the title, or author:Augustine to find books by people with the name Augustine. You can also combine these terms to further refine your search.
See below for more details on finding books in your Library.
Access Cloud-based Books
All the books that are included in your Verbum library are visible even if they haven't been downloaded to the current device.
Cloud-based books are indicated, in Tile view, by the presence of the Cloud icon to the right of the resource. They are also indicated in the information pane by a Download button.
Cloud-based books are included in search results and can be previewed in your local installation or accessed using the Web App with an internet connection. If you want these books to be available without an internet connection, click the Cloud icon or the Download button to add it to your local installation.
For more information about cloud-based books, access the article here.
Add Books to Your Library
The library also provides a quick and easy way to find interesting Verbum books that you might want to purchase or add to your Print Library (for more information, see the article here). To do this, click Add to Library at the top right of the panel. Just like with the books in your personal library, you can search, sort, and filter available books.
To the right of each book, you'll find one or two icons showing the options that are available to you.
These icons indicate, and enable, the following:
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- this enables you to add the book to your Print Library.
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- this indicates that you already own the book.
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- this indicates that you don't own the book and allows you to preview or buy it.
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- this enables you to remove the book from your Print Library.
If you hover over a book, the icons will expand to show the options available. Click one to select the option of your choice.
If you select the Preview/Buy option, a preview will open in a new panel.
From here, you can preview the content or you can select one of the options at the top right to either purchase the book (the Add to cart option) or open the product description page for the book (the Learn more option).
Search Your Library
You have several options for how to search for the books you want to find in your library including: by keyword, title, author, and date added.
Find a book by keyword
- Enter your search term(s) in the Library search bar. Verbum will filter your library to display books containing your entry. In Details view, the Library shows a Rank column that orders your books by how closely they relate to your search term(s).
- Click a book to open it in a new panel.
Note: The book will open to the last-accessed location.
Find books by title
Use standard Verbum search syntax to search for books by title. Type title:[search term] (with no space after the colon).
For example: title:John
Note: Simply searching for John displays books that contain John in its associated metadata (title, author, description, etc). Adding title: before the search term limits your search to books with John in the title.
Find a book by author
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Click the dropdown for the books display mode and select Details view.
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Sort your library by author by clicking the heading labeled Author. You are able to view an alphabetical list of authors in your library. Scroll until you find the author you are looking for.
You can also:
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Click the Navigation drawer
to reveal faceted browsing options.
- Scroll down to the Author section. This section filters your library by author and lists books based on the number of books by each author.
- Click an Author to filter your library to just show books by that author
One more option to find books by author is:
- Type
author:[first and/or last name] - Verbum displays all books written/edited by this person.
Note: Simply typing an author’s name in the library search bar may yield results where the person is mentioned in the metadata associated with the book but is not the author.
Tip: Any of the headings displayed in the Filter column can be entered directly into the library search bar. To use a filter field, type [filter field]:[search term].
For example, entering subject:leadership shows all your books focusing on leadership.
Find recently added or updated books
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Scroll to the bottom of your library window.
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Verbum displays filters for Today, the Last 7 Days, the Last 14 Days, and the Last 30 Days.
- Click one to filter your Library to just show books added in that timeframe.
If you have recently purchased a book and it doesn’t appear under one of these filters click here for some guidance on things to check. If that still doesn't resolve the issue please contact Verbum support at 888-634-2038 (US/Canada) or +1 360-450-3542 (International).
Prioritize Books
Prioritizing books allows you to instruct Verbum to display results from your selected books ahead of other results or when you click a Bible passage link.
- Right-click the resource(s) or series you wish to prioritize and select Prioritize This Book.
- This opens the Prioritize Books tab. This places the book(s) at the bottom of the prioritized list.
Note: If you have selected a volume from a series (such as a commentary series), you'll also see the option to prioritize the entire series.
- Drag books - within the Prioritize Books pane - to reorder the priority list.
Note: To un-prioritize a book, right-click it in the Prioritize panel and select Remove From This List.
For more information on Prioritizing Books, access the article here.
Start a Reading Plan
With your Library open, find a downloaded book you want to read. Right-click the title and select Start reading plan. Verbum opens a new Reading Plan document based on your selected book.
Note: This option is specifically designed to divide your readings by chapter. Once you start a reading plan using this option, it cannot be edited. Learn more about starting and restarting reading plans in the article here.
You can also start a reading plan from a book's Information pane.
Define Collections
Collections are individually created, customizable groups of books, which can be searched specifically in several places within Verbum.
To create a custom collection of books,
- Select the book(s) you want to add.
Tip: Select multiple books by holding Ctrl (Windows) or Cmd (Mac) while clicking the desired book(s).
- Open the Information pane, and select Save as Collection.
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This opens the Collections tool with a new collection containing the books you selected. And the tool provides you with additional options related to your new collection.
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Give your collection a name. (for example: Carta Books)
To add books to a collection,
- Enter your desired search term.
For example: atlas - Drag and drop books from the lower panel to the panel labeled +Plus these books.
To learn more about managing collections, see the article on the Collections tool here or go to the Verbum Help section on Collections here.
Note: You may open the Collections tool directly by clicking here.
View and Edit Book Information
You can view and modify information for a single book, or for a group of books, by using the Info window.
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Select a book(s), open the sidebar by clicking its icon
and select the Information tab.
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You’ll notice that the window provides different options and information depending on whether you have one or multiple books selected.
Rating
To rate a book, click the rating stars. Your rating will overwrite the default rating for the book and can be used for grouping your books.
Tags
You can create custom tags for any book. Books you’ve tagged will appear when you enter the same tag in the Library search window.
To tag a book:
- Select a book(s), open the sidebar by clicking its icon
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Scroll to the tags section and type a tag into the text box, then press Enter. To remove a tag, click the X adjacent to the tag.
Recommend
Verbum makes it easy for you to share your thoughts about your books with others. In the Recommend section, you have the option of posting thoughts or recommendations about a book directly to Faithlife.com, Facebook, Twitter, or sending a link via email. Simply click the desired icon to start the action.
Citation/Save as Bibliography
Verbum generates a citation for every book in your library. To cite a single book:
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Select your desired book.
- Open the sidebar by clicking its icon
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Scroll to the citation section. Click Copy to add the citation to your clipboard. You may then paste the citation as you would any other text.
To generate a bibliography:
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Select multiple books in your library.
- Open the sidebar by clicking its icon
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Click Save as Bibliography.
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A new bibliography window appears with entries for your selected books.
Note: For more information on Bibliography, click here.
Manage Books on Mobile Devices
You can use the Library to set which books download to your mobile device(s) so they can be accessed while the device is offline.
Note: The Verbum mobile app must be installed on the device, and must be linked to your user account.
- Open the sidebar by clicking its icon
- Scroll to the Devices section.
- Checking the box(es) sets your selected book to download to specific Faithlife apps on your mobile device.
- Unchecking the box removes that book from your device (it will still be available when you have an internet connection).
For more information about downloading resources to mobile devices, access the article here.