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SALT LAKE CITY -- App: LDS Gospel Library
Price: Free
Verdict: It's free and great!
Download: App store link
For many people, smartphones and tablets have completely changed how and where they consume media of all types, including music, movies, books and magazines. And going to church is no exception. The LDS Gospel Library app produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints makes available for download nearly all of the gospel library text that’s available online at lds.org.
All of the standard works, study aids, general conference talks, hymn lyrics, Sunday School manuals and study guides and priesthood and Relief Society manuals and even current and past issues of church magazines are made available.
- iPhone
- iPad
- iPod
- Android
You can download and remove content as you like to make best use of limited storage space. Footnotes and cross references are all active links that will take you to where you need to go. And getting back to where you came from is easy as well. You can also open up other windows for when you need to look up something that is not in the footnotes. You can create bookmarks, look at your reading history and do searches to find exactly what you need.
Another great feature is the ability to highlight and mark scriptures and other text. You can pick the color, leave a note or link it to another passage. And if you use these same features with your LDS.org account, those markings are synced together.
Some features that are not yet available that would be great to see in future releases are the ability to download or even stream video and audio that is available online, viewing of images for use in lessons or family home evenings and full-color magazines and manuals that you can view in the app itself. Whether or not these kinds of features are on the horizon is yet to be seen.
A drawback is the formatting of the scriptures. It will be harder for those who remember passages better by remembering where they are on the page, such as on the left page, right column and near the top. It would be nice to have the scriptural text look the same as in an actual set of scriptures.
But overall it is an incredibly useful app, not only to consolidate the books and materials you have to bring to church, but to give you offline access to an abundance of gospel study resources no matter where you are. And best of all, it won’t cost you a thing.
Chris Allen has a degree in electrical engineering from BYU and has four children. Contact him at chris@latterdaymedia.tv or visit www.latterdaymedia.tv
