PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARIES: A NATIONAL RESOURCE
TERESA RICE

LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY
LIS 7700
PROFESSOR MICHAEL CARPENTER, PH.D.
SPRING SEMESTER 2004

It seems to me that the dedication of a library is in itself an act of faith, to bring together the records of the past
and to house them in buildings where they will be preserved for the use of men and women in the future. A nation
must believe in three things.
It must believe in the past.
It must believe in the future.
It must, above all, believe in the capacity of its own people so to learn from the past that they can gain
in judgment in creating their own future.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, June 30, 1941¹

Presidential libraries are an invaluable national resource with unlimited ability to serve the public in many meaningful ways. Some might imagine that presidential libraries are simply dry, stuffy depositories of boring, dusty political documents, but this is not the case. Presidential libraries are great repositories of the nation’s social, economic, and political past. These libraries collect significant primary source material designed to capture an era. For any scholar of history who would like to study topics like the Great Depression, World War II, dropping of the first Atomic bomb, Cuban Missile Crisis, Civil Rights, Watergate, Hostage Crisis in Iran, Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion, or the fall of the Berlin Wall, a wealth of research information awaits them at a presidential library. The best part is that the majority of the information is primary source material, thus leaving the scholar to draw conclusions independent of any previous narrative. Presidential libraries are not simply entrusted with the task of maintaining presidential papers, they are keepers of the nation’s identity.

¹ Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s comments at the dedication of his library in 1941 as quoted by Hyland from the primary materials. Hyland, Pat. Presidential Libraries and Museums: An Illustrated Guide. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 1995: 9. Also found at the NARA web site’s brief history web page: http://www.archives.gov/presidential_libraries/about/history.html.

² From “General White House Photos” link of f the Images from the Reagan Library archives found on the web site: http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/photos/whitehouse.htm.

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