I heard recently of a conversation between a seminary professor and a colleague of his. Their discussion revolved around the popularity of online publications. Because of current technological advancements, the professor's friend predicted that within ten years we would no longer be publishing books in print. The professor's response to his colleague's premonition was: "If that were to happen, then I'll be laying down my pen."

His preference is the good-old-fashioned book, with pages you can feel and book shelf space you can fill. And I'd have to agree with him to an extent. I enjoy taking trips to the local bookstore and cafe, perusing the isles for the latest book on a given subject, grabbing it off the shelf, carrying it over to a little table and flipping through pages while sipping a cup of freshly brewed coffee.

However, (and allow me to stress the "however") when I sit in my office at home to prepare for a sermon or Bible study, I love the convenience of having thousands of pages of resource material only a click away.

I'd fill my desk and most of my floor with the amount of books I can display on just one computer monitor. And talk about saving time! With the continued development of search capabilities, I not only keep myself out of trouble with my wife by not cluttering up my study, but I have more time to spend with her (and with my golf clubs!).

Though I don't think the physical book will ever be replaced by published works on-line or in software, I do think digital media is going to continue to bring information to us in convenient manner at an affordable price. And as we all know, these qualities are extremely beneficial in a ministry setting.

This year's review contains several items that you will want to get your hands on. The trouble won't be trying to decide which one to get, but how to stay under budget.

BIBLE STUDY SOFTWARE

BibleWorks 5

I have never seen a more powerful Bible study tool than BibleWorks 5. If your desire is to dig deep, then this program will give you the tools neces-sary to surface exegetical gems. There are absolutely too many resources to list (Last year's review highlights many of the resources that are carried over from the previous version.), so I'll just focus on a few updates that stood out to me.

First of all, the people at Hermeneutica have made a significant improvement over the previous version's interface. Version 5 offers a graded interface that is accessible as soon as you begin using the program. A menu is displayed offering the three most commonly used interfaces: the Beginner Mode, the Standard Command Line Mode and the Power User Command Line Mode. And, if you've been using BibleWorks since its conception, the Power User Command Line Mode features the same interface that you're used to with a few extras, so there won't be wasted time relearning the upgrade.

Often software as complex as BibleWorks can be quite intimidating to the average user. Offering interfaces based on ability level as well as providing an online help system should deflate any fears you might have of using software of this magnitude. In addition, there's a video library that will take you step by step through the many tools and resources BibleWorks 5 has to offer.