ROOTS & BRANCHES

I’d heard that the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, had reopened with much of its physical layout changed, so when I had the chance to safely travel earlier this month, I jumped at the chance to try it out.

And before I even had a chance to look at much of it, I was fortunate enough to get a VIP tour from no less than David E. Rencher, chief genealogical officer for FamilySearch, who’s in his second stint as director of the library.

I had seen a virtual preview of the redo that had had been offered by FamilySearch, the library’s parent organization, right before the gigantic online RootsTech conference earlier this year. As I wrote at the time: “I’m going to say that there’s now a superb plan for reinvention of the library in a much changed technology world,” after years of being overshadowed by FamilySearch’s online presence—including fewer in-person visits.

The physical Family History Library is looking upon itself as the centerpiece of a global library that includes the Family History Centers and web-based services—and has recrafted what “visitation” of the library means.

More on that later; first, let me run through some of the physical changes to the library, which are a continuing work in progress:

• All of the floors now have most of the area devoted to tables and workspaces with two monitors where someone can access Internet, look at digitized films and make prints of records.
• The content of B1 and B2 floors have been changed. B1 now has all international resources (including the British Isles), while B2 has all the international books, again including British Isles.
• There’s a new, spacious lunch lounge on the main floor, replacing a break room that was small and, frankly, dumpy.
• Still being finished is a special maps area as well as spots to use the old microfilm readers.
• There’s also a new way to request help from the expert staff of the Family History Library by simply scanning a QR code.

Continuing even though the library has reopened are services they pioneered during pandemic designed to bring the library’s materials and expertise to patrons around the world.

These include starting a book look-up service, offering consultations with its staff of experts, and something that while it’s cosmetic, speaks toward breaking out of that overshadowing: Changing the library’s web URL from one that was difficult to find to an intuitive one— https://www.familysearch.org/family-history-library.

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Coming next week: Ever heard the phrase “there were no second acts in American lives” used as a quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald? Well, your “Roots & Branches” columnist has such an act and I’ll tell you all about it.