Collection Development 'Mormonism': A Perfect Storm

This article talks about Mormonism, which has been sensationalized more often than most other religions. Since before the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and through Mitt Romney's run for the U.S. Presidency, an unprecedented number of news stories have been published about the Mormon faith. Historian Richard Bushman has termed the last decade a "perfect storm of publicity about Mormonism." Yet, despite the flood of media attention, many Americans remain unaware that the term Mormon is the "unofficial" name for the Salt Lake City-headquartered Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). And it does not help matters that LDS Church members are often interchangeably referred to as Latter-day Saints, or, simply, Saints. Recent popular titles about splinter groups from the original LDS Church--e.g., Carolyn Jessop and Laura Palmer's Escape (Broadway, 2007)--as well as reports about the Fundamentalist LDS of Texas, who are not Mormons, have contributed to additional confusion about Mormons' identities, practices, and beliefs. Here, the authors provide a brief history of the Mormons and present a list of resources, with more on the web, that bring to the religion collections. The authors include resources written by both believers and nonbelievers and advise librarians to collect across the spectrum of viewpoints. These resources include works of scripture, doctrinal overviews, contemporary views, and history. Some of these are recommended as core resources for all libraries.