Salt Lake City, USA - A book by Mormon church president Thomas S. Monson was the final item added on Wednesday to a time capsule that will be sealed inside a wall of a new church history library.
The steel time capsule -- 2 feet high, 18 inches long and six inches wide -- was sealed during a ceremony at the still-empty 230,000 square-foot library. Monson's book, "Faith Rewarded," chronicles the expansion of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints into Communist East Germany.
"You can't read history and not have a greater appreciation of the past and the awareness that every day we are writing it for others," said Monson, the 16th president of the 13 million-member church.
After nearly 15 years of planning and more than four years of construction the library will open for public use after a June 20 dedication ceremony. The time capsule will be enclosed behind a panel of dry wall in the southwest corner of the library's reading room.
The box will provide a "snapshot" of church history for those who open it in the future, said Elder Marlin K. Jensen, the church historian. Also in the time capsule are a 2009 church almanac, photographs of church leaders, maps of church areas around the world, a copy of the Book of Mormon and other texts and a two-volume DVD set with digital copies of items from the library's collection.
The new library will hold more than 3.5 million manuscripts, 210,000 publications, 100,000 photographs, some 50,000 audiovisual records and other items spanning the 179 years since the church's founding by Joseph Smith in western New York.
Mormons believe religious scripture commands them to keep a carefully documented record of church activities and events. Since its inception in 1830, the church has always employed the services of at least one full-time historian.
Items in the priceless library collection include the original journals and writings of Smith and 14 other church presidents along with records from individual church congregations and members. Some items have been purchased by the church, while others were donated.
"Things that we own are worth millions because of the market," Jensen said. "Take a page of the original book of Mormon manuscript, probably be worth a million dollars, just one little page."
Storing the collection uses about 51,000 square feet of space, assistant church historian Richard Turley said. Properly preserving it takes another 40,000 square feet of heating and cooling equipment to control the six-story building's temperature and humidity.
"There are a dozen major storage spaces. Ten of those will be at 55 degrees Fahrenheit and 35 percent relative humidity," Turley said. "Two will be at minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit and those are to preserve materials that degrade quickly."
Working eight-plus hours over a six-day week, moving the collection is expected take about five weeks, senior curator Chris McAfee said. The transfer of the collection will officially begin April 13, but the preparations began nearly two years ago.
Library staff has carefully worked through each piece in the collection to determine first whether restoration or repair work was needed and then how each piece should be stored and packaged for the move, McAfee said.
"We're moving it very safely and very securely so that we lose or damage none of the items," he said.
The collection has also been affixed with a new electronic bar coding system that allows for a better tracking of the overall inventory.
About 40,000 people -- including religious scholars, historians, authors and curious church members -- used the existing library last year, Jensen said.
"We hope that the average person will realize that they can come here and use the facilities, get into the collections, write a family history or a personal history and learn about the church," Jensen said.
The new library is designed to serve the church's needs for up to 50 years, but that could change, Jensen said.
"If in that time technology doesn't shrink preservation to the point where this can go on serving our needs, then we'll build another library at some point," he said.