New Church History Library

by Larry Richman (06/22/2009 06:50 am)

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After 15 years of planning, 4 years of construction, and a million artifacts moved, the new Church History Library was dedicated Saturday, June 20, and opens to the public today. The impressive granite and glass structure sits at the intersection of North Temple and Main Street in Salt Lake City, sharing intersection with the Conference Center, Temple Square, and the Relief Society Building.

The 230,000-square-foot (4 football fields of space) facility houses more than 179 years’ worth of Church history. In addition to collecting and preserving, the facility is also designed to provide access to the Church history information.

Last week, I toured this impressive new library with fellow Church employees.

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Moving the Collection

In an extraordinary operation, more than a million valuable documents, books, photos, diaries, microfiche, and film were moved from their old home at the Church Office Building across the street to the Church History Library. Although it took just 19 days to physically move the items across the street, it took 200 volunteers (aged 19-91) more than 10,000 man-hours over a period of a year and a half to tag, categorize, and prepare each piece to be moved. One project leader compared the mammoth undertaking to moving the Library of Congress.

Preserving the Collection

library-vaults Priceless documents and artifacts are housed and preserved on nearly 50 miles of shelving in temperature-controlled vaults with fire and seismic protection. 10 storage rooms maintain a constant temperature of 55 degrees F, with 35% relative humidity, to slow down the chemical processes that cause the documents to age. Some items, such as color motion picture films, photographs, and records of special significance, are kept in subzero (minus 4 degrees F) vaults. Environmental controls reduce the physical stress of expansion and contraction induced by fluctuating temperatures, which in Utah range from 0 to 105 degrees F.

The old-and-new collection contains everything from Book of Mormon manuscript pages to modern-day patriarchal blessings; antiquated wax cylinder audio recordings to advanced digital technology. And each year, the collection of a million-plus records grows by approximately 6,000 items.

library-preserve The Church History Library also provides the latest methods in conservation, collection development, and research. Conservators repair, restore, and stabilize books, documents and photographs with a state-of-the-art conservation lab. The lab includes a darkroom, where conservators are able to turn acetate negatives into useable photographs, and a document cleaning room that enables them to wash historical records and apply age-slowing chemical treatments.

Digital records are also preserved through periodic migration to different mediums. Even obsolete equipment has its place. The collection contains media formats that have been used over 100 years–for example, an 1897 wax cylinder of President Wilford Woodruff’s voice. There are also wire recordings, reel-to-reel tapes, cassette tapes, and motion picture films. Their challenge is to have not only the items themselves, but the equipment on which to play them.

More About the Facility

That state-of-the-art spirit is also found in the innovation of the Church History Library’s design. Great care was taken to make sure the building not only met, but surpassed building code and energy efficiency standards. That attention to a “green” building design is found in such areas as the filtering system, which eliminates allergens. The paper, plastic and metal products used in the Church History Library will be recycled, and the heating and cooling systems have the highest efficiency ratings. The landscaping and plumbing will use less water, and the windows, blinds, and insulation will preserve temperatures.

library-public But perhaps one of the most notable aspects of the new library is that it is designed for public accessibility. The Church History Department’s previous accommodations were designed to be more of an internal archive, said Steve Olsen, managing director over Church history. “The Church in its foundational documents has a huge commitment to preserving history and to making history useful for members and others interested in learning about its history,” said Brother Olsen. “It is the first time in the Church’s 179-year history that we have had a dedicated public building for this purpose. … It’s really quite significant.”