Deseret Bookshelf geared for LDS audience

SALT LAKE CITY — If you don't have a tablet, then you are quite possibly looking at your neighbor's Christmas gift in envy. CNN reported that tablets were the most desired gadget this past holiday season.

As of this week, the Deseret Bookshelf app has nearly 250,000 downloads. This free app averages around 5,000 downloads a week and is available for Apple iOS, Android and Kindle users.

Once downloaded, the user receives eight free e-books, such as "Jesus the Christ," "Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith" and others. This way, users are allowed to explore the app before purchasing anything. It also provides a solid set of material, along with a full set of the LDS scriptures. The app puts official church curriculum alongside Deseret Book's doctrinal titles, according to digital product director Dallas Petersen.

"We want to support people who are teaching and speaking and other things LDS people do," he said.

With the Bookshelf app, books like Elder David A. Bednar's "Increase in Learning" and Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's "For Times of Trouble," which have DVDs to complement the print edition, include video clips within the download itself rather than on a DVD.

Recently, Deseret Book has produced an app titled "LDS Quotes." This app will send a short quote each day to all compatible devices. More than 2,000 quotes are also stored in the app, which can be searched by topic as well.

Sarah Sanders Petersen is an intern for Deseret News where she writes for Mormon Times and other feature articles. She is a communications major and editing minor from Brigham Young University.