THE SERMON SHELF: This is a library of sermons by such folks as Maxie Dunnam, C. Thomas Hilton, Mark Trotter, and James Harnish. The Sermon Shelf contains a baker's dozen of books with a total of 144 sermons. Many of these books have been on the shelf of bookstores for a few years but they are still top-notch sermons. Not only are there great sermons here, there are great illustrations buried in the sermons, too. Again, it is easy to search, bookmark, highlight, and make notes.

THE SERMON ILLUSTRATOR: This is included in The Preaching Library but also comes as a stand alone. This is a good group of illustrations. I personally think a database works better for storing and finding illustrations but I can't fault the illustrations contained here. They are very good. You can mark when you used them by making a note attached to that particular illustration.

THE ABINGDON PREACHING ANNUAL 2000: This is next year's version of the successful and useful Preaching Annual. It comes in book and electronic version. Based on the Common Lectionary, it contains 156 Sermon Briefs, one for each of the Lectionary passages and 52 Complete Sunday Worship Services and 12 Devotionals for Preachers. A very useful tool.

THE NEW INTERPRETER'S BIBLE and THE INTERPRETER'S BIBLE AND INTERPRETER'S BIBLE DICTIONARY: The New Interpreter's Bible (Electronic Version) comes with both the NIV and the NRSV already unlocked. The version I reviewed has Volumes II and XII unlocked. The Interpreter's Bible and Interpreter's Bible Dictionary (Electronic Version) comes with the KJV and the RSV unlocked.

The classic best selling commentary, The Interpreter's Bible, is in the process of being updated. Now, you can purchase The New Interpreter's Bible and the original in an electronic format. There are several advantages to owning the software format as opposed to the book format. First, when the New Interpreter's is complete, every volume will be completely "word" searchable, just as all twelve volumes of Interpreter's and the five volumes of the Interpreter's Dictionary are. You have the ability to cut and paste from each of them You can highlight the text with multiple colored highlighters. You can make notes galore (sort of like scribbling in the margins only with sticky notes) and set bookmarks. One of the greatest advantages is the fact that the physical storage space and weight are phenomenally less than the book versions. Both versions are easy to use. Since they both use the Folios Viewer, once you learn one, you've pretty much mastered the other. There is one minor difference; in The Interpreter's Bible there is a little button used to jump between the exposition and exegesis sections of text, which is nice.

In the Abingdon programs, one of the things that I believe needs improvement is the backtracking. When you play a midi file to see if you know the tune in both Worship Libraries, and then backtrack, sometimes you don't get back to the spot from which you started. This usually means you have to re-find the particular Sunday through the "Plan a Worship Service" feature. It's not something that is crucial or critical, but at times it can be annoying.