ldsWebguy

Two new features on the LDS.org home page emphasize our faith in Jesus Christ and the importance of strengthening families. These features in the lower left corner of the home page provide links to the prophetic declarations “The Living Christ: The Testimony of the Apostles” and “The Family: A Proclamation to the World.”

To make room, the daily quote has been removed from the lower-left corner of the home page. If you would like to read a daily quote, we invite you to subscribe to one or more of the LDS Gems available at www.lds.org/gems.

The religion known in the past 30 years for its cutting-edge public service ads on the family has now redefined ways to share its message in “Truth Restored,” a major multimedia campaign. The ads from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the “Mormons”) feature recent converts who share — unscripted and in their own words — their conversion experiences.

The More Good Foundation has announced a partnership with Dr. Richard Holzapfel (a BYU professor of Church History and Doctrine and a prolific author) to create the #1 Web site about Jesus Christ at Christ.org. (Until the site is built, they are redirecting traffic to Mormon.org.)

Christ.org will include top articles, music, and videos on the life, death, resurrection, and mission of the Savior Jesus Christ. It will be well documented, well designed, and translated into over a dozen languages. We hope it will bring everyone who visits it closer to Christ.

What resources or features would you recommend they include in the top Web site on Jesus Christ? Post comments on the More Good blog.

We previously announced that the Encyclopedia of Mormonism is available online at encyclopediaofmormonism.byu.edu. This week’s Church News had a good article about it. Below is the text from that article:

BYU puts massive Encyclopedia of Mormonism online in free, easy-to-search format

By R. Scott Lloyd
Church News staff writer

The Encyclopedia of Mormonism, an ambitious reference work published in 1992 by Macmillan Publishing Co. of New York, but which has been out of print for several years, is now available without charge to Internet users.
The link, available through the BYU Web site, is www.lib.byu.edu/Macmillan/
“I am confident that many people all over the world will find the Encyclopedia of Mormonism to be an excellent port of entry for information about hundreds of topics that remain of current interest,” said John Welch, a law professor at BYU who was on the board of editors that assembled the five-volume work.
The Encyclopedia of Mormonism is a joint product of Brigham Young University and Macmillan Publishing Company, and its contents do not necessarily represent the official position of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Brother Welch emphasized that the new online availability of the encyclopedia is only Phase I of a three-phase project. “In Phase II, the entire encyclopedia will become word-searchable, and in Phase III its articles and references will be updated and supplied with links to online resources.”
In its hard-bound publication, the encyclopedia is a five-volume work with individual entries by 750 authors covering Mormon history, doctrine, scripture, organization and culture. Originally, it was to be four volumes, but a fifth volume was included containing the text of the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price for the convenience of users who might not otherwise have ready access to those books of scripture.
The concept of the encyclopedia originated in 1987, when Charles Smith of Macmillan approached S. Kent Brown of BYU, the two having worked together on the Coptic Encyclopedia. With the approval of Jeffrey R. Holland, then president of the university, a publication agreement was negotiated, and a Board of Editors was selected with Daniel H. Ludlow as editor-in-chief. Two members of the Quorum of the Twelve were advisers to the project.
Reviewers have praised the encyclopedia, including the prestigious Library Journal, which noted in its Feb. 15, 1992 issue: “A tremendous amount of material is presented here, and one of the outstanding strengths of the set is access to the material through the combination of the (synoptic) outline, cross references and index. Seeing the Mormons and their tradition through their own eyes, readers gain insight into Mormon self-understanding.”

We encourage you to try test podcasts of general conference and give us your feedback. The audio link is http://feeds.lds.org/ldsgccomplete_eng and the video is http://feeds.lds.org/ldsgccomplete_eng_mp4.

You can also subscribe via iTunes by clicking Advanced > Subscribe to Podcast in the iTunes window, then enter the Web URLs above. If this test is successful, we hope to begin providing podcasts to the public by next conference, as well as additional RSS feeds.

You may also be interested to look at ScriptureCast.net which is a site created by a member that allows people to create custom podcasts of the scriptures. It has been recently updated to include the October General Conference as one of the sources. At the site, you can create a podcast which will feed you General Conference talks at a rate you specify. You can, for example, review one talk per week, or listen to talks at a rate which will have you finish by the next General Conference. If you like this functionality, please submit feedback on the site, and also leave a comment here.

Audio files of the Spanish and Portuguese scriptures are now available in MP3 format on the Church’s Web site at lds.org/audio. They are available as zip files for download. Within a few weeks, they will also be posted as individual MP3 files that can be played online.

The English audio files are also available at lds.org/audio and also linked to each chapter page on the scriptures site. (In English, you can click the word Listen at the top left of each chapter page to listen to the audio.) A future enhancement of the scriptures site will add links to the Spanish and Portuguese audio.

We plan to provide audio recordings of the scriptures in 28 more languages within the next few years.

FYI, the Book of Mormon is currently available in print in 106 languages and the triple combination in 49. The text of the scriptures is available online in English, Spanish, French, Italian, and German. Portuguese will be available about the end of 2007.

The proceedings of the 177th Semiannual General Conference are available on LDS.org in many formats and languages.

• In English, online text is available, as well as audio and video files in various formats (MP3, Windows Media 8, Windows Media 9, and QuickTime) for all sessions and speakers.

• For Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Cantonese, and Mandarin, MP3 audio files are available for complete sessions and by speaker.

To access these materials, go to
http://www.lds.org/conference/oct2007/archive/0,21150,7842-1,00.html
and select a language.

To read more about when additional conference materials will be available, go to
http://www.lds.org/conference-info/0,21082,7841-1,00.html

Church Public Affairs now has an official presence on YouTube. Eight videos of Elder Ballard answering common questions about Mormonism were first posted on the Church’s Newsroom site, then posted on the new YouTube channel:

(You can also subscribe to these videos by RSS.)

Elder Ballard answers questions like these:

• Are Mormons Christian?
• Why do people say Mormonism is a cult?
• How Do Mormon Beliefs Differ From Other Christians?

With Church members so geographically spread and speaking such diverse languages, distributing the words of the prophets to everyone is becoming more complex and more important than ever. Enabling people to hear the message in their own language will help them strengthen their faith, The Internet is an increasingly useful distribution channel the Church uses to reach a worldwide audience both during and after general conference.

Live Streaming

Live online streaming of October general conference proceedings (with the exception of the priesthood session) will be available in both audio and video formats.

Video streaming will be available in English, Portuguese, and Spanish through the video player available at byu.tv. The player will work on all known PC and Macintosh browsers with a broadband Internet connection. Visiting the links above will connect the user to whatever the current live video feed is.

Audio streaming is available through the LDS.org broadcast page in more than 60 languages.

Downloadable Audio Archives

English MP3 audio files will be available within two weeks of the broadcast. MP3 files of additional languages will follow the conference by six weeks.

Audio files of April 2007 general conference were available to members in 79 languages the following June. The number of languages represented a significant increase over previous conferences, and we hope to repeat the accomplishment this conference. All the files were captured during the live interpretation of conference and converted into MP3 form. For access to the archives of past conferences visit the LDS.org Broadcast page.

Text

The official text of each conference talk is also made available online. English text is available the Thursday after conference. Text in 27 languages is available within four weeks of the broadcast. Braille is available within six weeks. Online PDF versions of the Liahona in 11 languages will be available by the first week of November.

(Read the list of languages available.)

All Formats

For more information on the availability of general conference materials online; in print; and on CD, audiocassette, and DVD, visit lds.org/conference-info.

To find out what is available from general conference by language, click on General Conference in the LDS.org Gospel Library.

Artwork from the Museum of Church History and Art is now available for purchase online. In the past, you could only get it at the museum store in Salt Lake City or place an order over the phone. Now you can get prints at ldscatalog.com.

The offering includes approximately 70 paintings by well-known artists such as Minerva Teichert, John Hafen, and Walter Rane. These paintings are replicated using the giclée printing process, which uses detailed digital scans, pigmented archival ink, precision color control, and technically advanced ink-jet printing to create reproductions. In normal display conditions, giclée prints are expected to last over 50 years without fading. Most of these unframed prints are available in three sizes, with prices ranging from $40 to $345.

If you want framed prints, you can call the museum store at 801-240-3592.