History of the Adventist Pioneer Library
Our Beginning
We began work as a committee in August of 1988 with four members. Our main goal was to computerize Seventh-day Adventist pioneer writings, and make a CD-ROM of them. We called ourselves the “Pioneer Compact Disc Committee.” We identified seven pioneers whose works we would include: J. N. Andrews, Stephen Pierce, Joseph Bates, Uriah Smith, Hiram Edson, James White, J. N. Loughborough. We started with keying in Uriah Smith’s two books, Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation and The Sanctuary and Its Cleansing.
We published our first newsletter in the Spring of 1989. Our work was adopted as a religious, charitable, and public-benefit endeavor by Health Ministry Foundation, Inc., a non-profit corporation in California, having 501(c)(3) status with the government, and a member of Adventist Laymen’s Services and Industries (ASI).
Early Encouragement
Jim Nix, at that time Chairman of the Archives and Special Collections of the SDA Heritage Room, LLU library, endorsed and encouraged our work. This support has continued with many more Endorsements.
Periodical
In the beginning of 1991 we began publishing our periodical entitled Lest We Forget. We put this on hold after Vol. 12, No. 2, in order to work on the CD-ROM project.
Change of Name
We changed our name to “Adventist Pioneer Library” (APL) in November 1991 to reflect that we would be a resource for more than just the CD-ROM, and that our material would in a sense be a “virtual library” of early SDA writings.
Book Reprinted
At the end of 1992 we reprinted J. N. Loughborough’s eyewitness history of the beginning of our church, entitled The Great Second Advent Movement. We did a second printing of this book in 2003.
CD-ROM
In December of 1993 we published our first CD-ROM, entitling it Words of the Pioneers. We took the title from the statement, “Repeat the words of the pioneers in our work, who knew what it cost to search for the truth as for hidden treasure, and who labored to lay the foundation of our work.” (RH 5/25/05). This first release worked on a Windows platform. It contained over 160 books, pamphlets, sermons, and articles, plus the first 12 volumes of the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald. In August of 1994 the Macintosh software was released.
We published the second edition of the CD in November 1995, containing over twice the content of the first, while lowering the price 40%. This was a hybrid, working on both Windows and Macintosh platforms. In 1999 we issued a Special Release of the Second Edition at a reduced price, for users who already had the Folio search engine. In 2005 a modified release of the Second Edition was bundled with the latest Macintosh release of the Ellen G. White CD-ROM.
Data conversion for our 3rd edition CD-ROM began January 2005 and was completed by December of that year, followed by final production work. July 2005 we signed a working agreement with the Ellen G. White Estate, Inc., for production and publishing of this next edition. Our “third edition” collection, entitled Words of the Adventist Pioneers 2008, was published by the Ellen G. White Estate in May 2009 as part of the Ellen G. White Comprehensive Research Edition 2008 CD-ROM (PC). WOAP 2008 contains at least twice the content of the Second Edition. Since WOAP is bundled with the complete published writings of Ellen White, this CD-ROM is a unique “library” of early Adventist writings. A Mac version of the CD-ROM was released June 2010.
Online Audio and E-Books
September 2009 we took over www.EllenWhiteAudio.org and www.AdventAudio.org to handle audio books, and continued adding new titles and languages (commissioning some of the narration ourselves). By August of 2010 we began posting e-books (PDF and ePub formats).
Online Master Collection
In 2010 the Ellen G. White Estate developed a new web site containing the master collection of EGW writings for searching, and for downloading (eBooks, audio), including multiple languages. As part of APL’s business agreement with the Estate, the APL collection was also posted there for searching, in a section entitled “Adventist Pioneer Library.” This has also become the latest master collection of APL titles, where we can easily add new material, and correct errors found in the data conversion.
Exhibitions
APL has had exhibits at almost each national ASI convention since 1992. We have had booths in our earlier years at the medical alumni conventions at Loma Linda. And we also had exhibits at the General Conference Sessions at Utrecht Holland in 1995, Toronto Canada in 2000, St. Louis in 2005, Atlanta in 2010, and San Antonio in 2015. Look under News to see a listing of any scheduled upcoming exhibits.
APL On the Web
We obtained our first permanent Internet e-mail address February 1996, and began publishing our web pages in April 1996, courtesy of Andrews University. September 1996 we put our web pages up on TAGnet’s servers. August 2001 we obtained the domain of www.APLib.org (this web site). September 2009 we took over www.EllenWhiteAudio.org and www.AdventAudio.org for audio books, and later e-books. As of December 2012, www.EllenWhiteAudio.org is not operating under APL anymore.
Merger With Light Bearers Ministry
The board of Health Ministry Foundation, Inc., in October 2011 approved in principle the transfer of Adventist Pioneer Library to Light Bearers Ministry. Light Bearers have a early history of republishing SDA pioneer materials under what was called “Pioneer Library”! Light Bearers’ interest in these resources and their value have continued through the years, and includes warehousing, wholesaling, and retailing The Great Second Advent Movement which APL republished. The board of Light Bearers Ministry approved the transfer of APL to their ministry in June 2012. The actual merger occurred September 2013.
Return to Health Ministry Foundation.
In December of 2019 the boards of Health Ministry Foundation, Inc. and Lightbearers Ministry mutually and independently approved the transfer of Adventist Pioneer Library back from Light Bearers Ministry to Health Ministry Foundation following the tragic death of Fred Bischoff.
APL in App
By August 2014 the APL collection was included in the new EGW app for Windows 8 PCs and tablets. Plans are underway by the White Estate to have an app for Windows 8 phones, as well as Android and iOS mobile devices.
Team Members
Our current members are Uriel Vidal, Ricky Kearns, and Christian Avila.
Advisory Committee members (present or past): Marilyn Crane, P. Gerard Damsteegt, Ray and Frances Foster, Konrad Mueller, Jim Nix, Dave Ratz, and Philip Steinweg.
APL Support
The work of the committee is supported by donations and by sale of items we produce. To donate, go to our Donation page. To order, go to our Feedback page.
Updated 4 April 2023