For years, the LDS Church History Library and LDS Archives have been housed in the east wing of the Church Office Building in Salt Lake City. A new building — specially built to support the weight of materials, equipped according to all the latest ideas of preservation, and with space to allow the collections to expand — has been under construction just across the street from the Church Office Building.

The new Library/Archives building is slated to be turned over by the contractor to the owner next spring. In order to move and organize the huge masses of stored material from the old to the new site, the Library and Archives will be closed for an anticipated 90 days, a period now estimated to begin in mid-May (the date is flexible, depending on construction delays or advances). This means that no research can be conducted on site, nor patriarchal blessings searched, nor questions answered by staff, during those 90 days.

Those who have submitted proposals for papers at the Mormon History Association meeting next May should be especially alert to the fact that this closure will come a month or six weeks before the meeting — don’t be caught short! Don’t leave your archives research to the last minute, and do request your illustrations as early as possible.

And if you’re planning a research trip now, be aware that preparations for the move have been going on for months. Many materials are already in storage and cannot be accessed, and sometimes the atmosphere of the research room is chaotic, with books being shifted from one end of the room to another and an army of workers barcoding and scanning tens of thousands of open stacks items. Be prepared.