Good Books Free Journal

The project is nowhere near complete. And I intend to continue working on it for a long time. I have made a devotional Bible study site. I cannot really measure its impact yet, except on my church, and I don’t think I kept anyone from buying the works that are offered. Many are thankful for the work, and some make good use of it. I think that the long-term opportunity is to offer works that are otherwise unavailable to folks that are interested in serious study. It could replace a trip to the Library, or it could save somebody buying certain software that has these works, or keep them from buying old works in print. In some cases it actually makes works available that were simply nowhere on the web yet.

Outside of the church, I have seen many come to visit the site, and that I am getting a number of visitors from throughout the globe: since Kansas only accounts for 50% of the hits, and the USA for 87%, 13% of site hits are coming from other countries, chiefly Canada and India.

Since I began tracking the statistical information about Librex traffic 23/24 March, I’ve seen 513 distinct actual or human visits (I say that because there are a large number more than that if you can total page views, [search] bots, or other segmentations. They would make these numbers explode.)

I have added a number of features to the site from the beginning. Consistent navigation between works (e.g. King James Bible, Geneva Bible, Geneva Notes, Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, and others) was probably the most important thing, but I had laid the groundwork for that in another project earlier. That allows users to jump from a chapter in one work to its related or parallel page in another work: like going from Romans 6 in the King James to Henry’s Commentary on that chapter, to the references on it in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. I also modified that and added a couple of navigational helps for mobile users and Internet Explorer 6 users.

Another important feature, asked for by a member of my church was adding the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. That was a lot of work, and allowed people to jump back and forth between related, non-parallel points in the Bible. It has proved to be quite handy.

After talking with users, the biggest single thing I added was dog ears or earmarks: they allow you come back to your place on a page within the site. This allows you to read through long segments, and leave off, and return later.

I also made some works available on the web that are not (readily) available: like the Bay Psalm Book, Haldane’s Commentary on Romans, Hodge’s Commentary on Romans, and I intend to make more available over time. Haldane is not available on the main site, yet, but should be soon. (Right now it is only on the private alpha.)

The purpose of the site is different from most within the Bible site genre: It is not used for quick reference, but for lengthy reading. I am trying to use best practices to make it very legible, enjoyable, aesthetic, and useful for people who want to use it for long periods of devotional reading, as opposed to quick back-and-forth reference work and skimming.

I don’t mean by this to undercut or undermine others in this field who have created Bible software, but to lower the barrier to entry, in terms of both the cost and technical savvy. I want the experience on this site to be friendly, fast, helpful, and supportive. I want students of the Bible to have an enjoyable experience online with this. I imagine that this will make it easier to get to works, and drive the price down. But what I really imagine is that more people will be able to have an easier time studying the Bible with more depth. That would make me happy.