EXPANDED BOOK OF MORMON BIBLIOGRAPHY READY FOR DISTRIBUTION

The "Comprehensive Bibliography of the Book of Mormon (through December 1986)" has reached a sufficient stage of completion that is now available for order. Known around F.A.R.M.S. its computer code name of "BigBib," it lists almost 4,000 books, articles, papers, talks, and all sorts of items about the Book of Mormon. This almost doubles the size of the now superseded Book of Mormon bibliography F.A.R.M.S. has been distributing since 1982.

This bibliography can be ordered in three different formats—by author, date, or subject. The first listing organizes all entries alphabetically by author. The chronological file arranges the same material by the year when it was written. The subject listing is, by nature, quite imprecise; in some cases classifications had to be made by reading the title alone. Nevertheless, the divisions are relatively self-explanatory and are designed to be functional.

"This is a tremendous step forward for Book of Mormon research," observes Gary Gillum, Ancient Studies Librarian at the Harold B. Lee Library of the Brigham Young University, and one who has worked on this bibliography for the past six years. "We have already received significant encouragement to have this work published as a reference tool for libraries around the world."

One of the long-standing objectives of F.A.R.M.S. has been to facilitate research on the Book of Mormon. This new bibliography will be an indispensable tool for nearly all future Book of Mormon research projects. Most modern research needs to begin by consulting the work of previous scholars and writers. "We reviewed several papers last month," reports Jack Welch, "covering topics that had already been written on in great detail ten years ago. Unfortunately, the recent authors were unaware of this earlier work."

This project has been made possible by the efforts of dozens of people, but especially by timely grants in 1985 from Randy Paul (Phoenix, Arizona) and 1986 by John S. Welch (La Cañada, California), and by the devoted and valiant work of DeeAnn Hofer over the past two years. We hope this tool will continue to be improved and supplemented for years to come.