Newly issued: the U.S. National Archives (NARA) Report on Alternative Models for Presidential Libraries Issued in Response to the Requirements of PL 110-404 [PDF], 25 September 2009. Public Law 110-404 is the Presidential Historical Records Preservation Act of 2008; see PDF law text, 6 pages long. The law called for the National Archives to report on "alternative models for presidential archival depositories that—
(1) reduce the financial burden on the Federal Government;
(2) improve the preservation of presidential records; and
(3) reduce the delay in public access to all presidential
records."
SLA and other professional associations provided feedback on the topic to NARA. Comments received from the associations, other groups, and the general public are summarized on pages 56-58.
The report proposes five alternative models and concludes:
There is no more important question to consider in evaluating alternative models for Presidential Libraries than to know or decide who the system is designed to serve. The models laid out in this report provide very different experiences for very different groups of users. In evaluating this report, the reader needs to consider how broad NARA’s mission should be, what audiences should be served, and what their experience with a Presidential Library should be.
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