With an old fireplace shovel that may have stoked fires at Brigham Young's home, the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints turned over a patch of earth to dedicate the site for a 250,000-square-foot church history library.

''The first shovel full of dirt,'' President Gordon B. Hinckley said Friday.

The 95-year-old Hinckley then grabbed a full-size, gold-painted shovel and cracked, ''And now for the real thing,'' drawing laughter and applause from onlookers.