Clinton Library Archives
The Clinton Library Archives are housed at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas, and administered by staff members of the National Archives and Records Administration. The archives include approximately 35,000 cubic feet of material. This material includes 77 million pages of documents, 1.8 million photographs, 88,000 rolls of film, 12,500 videotapes, and assorted electronic files. Also in the archives are 14,000 books from Clinton's personal library.
From November 2000 to January 2001 eight C-5 transport planes flew 625 tons of archival material from Washington, DC, to Little Rock. On January 20, 2001, the National Archives removed 177 computers used during the Clinton administration, copied their drives, and reformatted them for reuse by the Bush White House. NARA retained 40 million government-related email messages in its sweep of Clinton's offices and network servers. All physical documents and other memorabilia were stored temporarily at a defunct Oldsmobile dealership until the Library Archive building came online on July 28, 2004.
NPR reporter Alex Chadwick describes the Clinton Library archives basement facilities as "like slightly smaller versions of the final shot from that first 'Indiana Jones' movie, the one where someone's wheeling away the lost Ark of the Covenant amid a maze of boxes." The basement storage area is approximately half a football field long, with boxes stacked in compact shelving twelve feet floor to ceiling.
Digital files will form the core of an online-accessible digital archive of Clinton-era primary material. The Clinton Electronic Records Project charged with creating the digital archive is directed by Sam Watkins.
The first archivist of the Clinton Library Archives was David Alsobrook. He began operating the archives in November 2004 with thirty employees. In an interview before the Clinton Library opening he said, "What presidential libraries do, they remind all of us that we're not Republicans or Democrats; we're Americans all. And so in that sense, we are a unifying cultural aspect of the National Archives. At least I feel like that, and that's just my personal opinion."
In accordance with the provisions of the Presidential Records Act of 1978, most Clinton administration documents were not available for five years after he left office.
On February 23, 2005 approximately 100,000 pages of Clinton administration domestic policy documents were made available to the public. The records included information on the President's initiatives in welfare reform, health care, education, employment, and the arts. The Library Archives also released material on the Commission on Holocaust Assets, which was set up to determine the distribution of assets of World War II victims in America following the war.
References
- "Access to Presidential Papers under Scrutiny," American Libraries, 35.10 (November 2004): 14.
- Alex Chadwick, "Profile: Taking a Tour of the New William J. Clinton Presidential Library with Archivist David Alsobrook," National Public Radio: Day to Day, November 17, 2004.
- "Clinton Documents To Be Made Public," New York Times, February 23, 2005.
- Jennifer Lee, " Archiving Digital Records From the White House," New York Times, January 25, 2001.
- Kevin Sack, "Pardon is Trouble for Clinton Library," New York Times, February 18, 2001.
