New Church History Library

It was a parking lot...
Now it's a state-of-the-art archival library available to the general public, while preserving history.
Inside the library - some interesting documents on display.

(Photo Tom Smart, Deseret News www.desnews.com)

In downtown Salt Lake, by the Conference Center and across from the Church Office Building is the new Church History Library.

I went on the tour and was fascinated to see how technology meets history and allows preservation of important documents, books, photographs, etc. I was especially impressed with the lab where curators labor patiently in the process of restoration. It's amazing what they can do, but even more interesting was the fact that they preserve in a way that allows their work to be undone - so as future preservationists have available improved techniques, supplies and methods, today's work won't make it harder. Click the post title to read about the purpose of this amazing facility. It is not family history like we access in the world-famous Family History Library, but it is an amazing facility for storing documents with church significance that we can share, browse, and explore. More info at Mormon Times.

Anyone who, in the 60s and 70s, believed as I did that laminating was THE way to save something like a newspaper clipping learned the hard way. You need only look at the one I saved this way of myself and Ken when we were elected studentbody officers at our college to see why that was a disaster. It seemed like a good idea and we started laminating everything from SS ID cards to photos. Likewise the acidic products we used in our scrapbooks and storage containers ruined our important papers; "magnetic" photo albums gummed up our pictures, and the new color photographs on our walls and in our albums faded into oblivion. A sad lesson, we know now that we need to store our precious past carefully.

Making extra copies and sharing them, either digitally or in print is one way to help in the case of a disaster such as fire or flood. No media storage is really forever, but having backup copies elsewhere because we shared means a certain degree of reclamation will be possible. As better and better methods become available, hopefully we will one day find a technique that allows our things to last as long as the styrofoam in the landfill.

D&C 85:1 "It is the duty of the Lord’s clerk, whom he has appointed, to keep a history, and a general church record of all things that transpire in Zion..." (Define Zion: Moses 7:18 "And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them.")