A trip to the Church History Library of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

The Church History Library is a department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (hereafter referred to as “the LDS Church”) and is located in the heart of Salt Lake City just north of Temple Square. This new state-of-the-art facility is one of the largest archives west of the Mississippi. The current library building was completed and dedicated in 2009. It features a beautiful modern façade with large plate glass windows that overlook downtown Salt Lake City.

The doors of the library open up on a spacious lobby that is filled with natural light. A reception desk, located just inside the doors, is staffed with missionaries (aka volunteers) that assist patrons and staff alike. To the left of the reception desk is the entrance to the staff areas of the building and behind the desk is the public area of the library.

The public space houses computers for research, exhibit space displaying some of the rare and historically important documents of the LDS Church, a conference room for special events, and a reference desk. Behind the reference desk is access to the library’s reading room. These public areas are only on the first floor of the library, and take up a small portion of the library’s square footage.

The staff entrance leads to the main working and storage areas of the library. This area takes up the vast majority of the first floor and all of the basement, second, third, and fourth floors of the library. The working areas include the stacks and administration offices as well as offices for the various departments including digitization, historic sites, acquisitions, cataloging, and the Joseph Smith Papers project.

The overall mission of the Church History Library is to collect and preserve the history of the LDS Church. This mission is fulfilled through the work of the 200 staff members that work in the library. The staff is assisted in their work by 200 missionaries within the walls of the library and an additional 200 or more missionaries serving throughout the world. Many members of the church also assist with the work of the library through church callings or assignments.

While the majority of the collection is housed in the library, a portion of the collection is stored in the Granite Vaults located in Little Cottonwood Canyon to the southeast of Salt Lake City. These vaults only contain less than 10% of the collection of the library, but also contain much of the family history records held by the LDS Church. There are also smaller libraries in various locations throughout the world that house a lot of the materials related to the history of the LDS Church in that region of the world.

According to the library’s website, the “…collection contains approximately:

•           270,000 books, pamphlets, magazines, and newspapers.
•           240,000 collections of original, unpublished records (journals, diaries, correspondence, minutes, and so forth).
•         3.5 million patriarchal blessings for Church members.
•         13,000 photograph collections.
•         23,000 audiovisual items.” (“Church History,” 2015)

One interesting aspect of the collection is that it is home to the largest collection of anti-Mormon literature in the world. Much of this individual collection, as well as the entire library collection, is collected through an active outreach program. This program is the preferred method of obtaining materials. However, the library does receive approximately 600 personal donations a year from various individuals.

A unique aspect of their collection development process is what they call “digitize and return.” Some of the items within the collection are of major personal significance to the individual who is being asked to donate. Because of this factor, the library has instituted a policy of borrowing the items long enough to digitize them. Once the item has been digitized, it is returned to the individual it was borrowed from. This allows the library to fulfill its mission while also allowing individuals to keep their items.

Within the realm of acquisition is the possibility of dealing with forgeries. The Church History Library used to purchase a lot of materials from dealers of archival materials. However, thirty to forty years ago, this abruptly stopped when it was discovered that one of the dealers was selling forgeries. The LDS Church then began actively seeking out materials themselves rather than relying on dealers to bring materials to them. Around 2006, the library did establish a modest budget for acquiring materials from dealers. The reason for all of this is that many items from the early history of the LDS Church are worth a decent amount of money. Because of this, forgeries are common and so the library has had to establish rules, such as the modest budget, to help eliminate being taken advantage of again.

With regards to the digitization process, the Church History Library has been at the forefront of the technology. They have had to create many makeshift cameras and other devices for digitization due to a lack of technology being available to meet their needs. As various equipment is created and becomes commercially available, the library will replace their old makeshift equipment with the new state-of-the-art technology.

Overall, the Church History Library is a very fascinating and wonderful archival institution. Throughout the building and the work being done, it is obvious that the library takes their mission seriously and that the work they do is on the leading edge of the archival field. If ever you find yourself in Salt Lake City, take the time to go on a tour of the Church History Library. Whether you are a member of the LDS Church or not, it is worth the time to visit.

Reference:

Church History. (2015, November 3). Retrieved September 05, 2017, from http://history.lds.org/article/about-the-facility?lang=eng