Getting Help: Our Ask Us Service

Ask Us is the Church History Library’s online consultation service. It is available by clicking on the Ask Us icon or link, which appears on many library webpages, such as the library homepage and in the upper right-hand corner of the Church History Catalog. By clicking on the Ask Us link and filling out the form that follows, you can get personal, customized research advice. After submitting the form, you will receive a confirmation email. Our team of experienced librarians, historians, and archivists then strive to get back to you within 3–5 business days.

The types of questions are as varied as our guests. Some are easily answered, and some require more in-depth research.

Here are a few examples of questions we get about using the library:

• How do I request that an item be digitized?
• The catalog says this item is closed to research. What does that mean and how can I be granted access?
• We would like to bring our youth group to visit the library. What are the options, and how do we arrange a visit?

These questions are very easy to answer—in some cases, it may be as simple as sending you a link to access the webpage you need.

We frequently get simple research questions like these:

• Who were the seven Presidents of the Seventy in September 1987?
• When was the Baton Rouge Louisiana Temple dedicated?
• What was the address of the old Deseret Gymnasium in Salt Lake City?

With questions like this one, we may be able to give you an answer because little to no additional research will be required on your part. For example, we can identify the Presidents of the Seventy serving in 1987 and discover that eight men, instead of seven, served as Presidents of the Seventy that year. Of course, we’ll also provide you with the sources we used to find this answer.

We often get more complex questions:

• I am trying to find where my grandfather was living in Salt Lake City in January of 1895. I have the name of his bishop at the time he received a mission call. Can you help me determine which ward had William Thorn as its bishop in 1895?
• Do you have any history of the Church’s early relationship with the Red Cross?

As questions such as these require more in-depth research, our professional consultants will provide one-on-one assistance to help you develop an effective research strategy, point you to helpful resources and collections from the archives, and facilitate your access to them. In the first example, some cursory research would reveal that William Thorn presided over the Salt Lake 7th Ward in 1895. With this information in hand, we can point you to relevant local records in our collection you can explore.

Similarly, in the case of the second example, we would guide you to the Church News, explain how to use its index to find articles on the Red Cross, direct you to the Church magazines where you could search for articles about Church involvement with the organization, and help you identify collections in our catalog that will tell this story.

Regardless of your research need, we are here to help you create a research plan and access resources and collections to find the information you seek. Fill out and submit an Ask Us request to get started. After we receive your request, we will be in contact with you shortly. We look forward to assisting you.