대통령도서관의 미래-미국의 경우

지미 카터 대통령도서관이 그의 85번째 생일에 즈음하여 재단장하여 개관했다는 소식이 전해진다. 지난 봄부터 시작된 이 재단장을 위해 약 1000만 달러가 소요되었다는 것. 카터 대통령은 미국 역사상 퇴임 후 가장 활발한 활동을 전개한 대통령으로 기록될 모양이다.

 

그런 가운데 눈에 띄는 기사 하나. 제목이 '대통령 도서관의 미래'라는 것이다. 아마도 이 기사는 이소연 교수께 도움이 되리라. 이 기사에 소개된 바로는, 미국의 국립문서기록보관청(National Archives and Records Administration)이 대통령 도서관의 새로운 대안을 다섯 가지 유형으로 나누어 제안하는 보고서를 발간 했다는 내용이 있다. 그리고 이에 대한 의회청문회가 열릴 예정이라 한다.

 

이 보고서는 이렇게 말하고 있다. "대통령의 기록을 전자화하는 것은 비용과 시간이 많이 소요되는 작업이다. 정부는 어떻게 이 일을 할 것인가를 심각하게 고려할 필요가 있다."

 

지난 여름 기록학과 대학원생 봉사자들과 대통령 기록을 보존하는 일을 위해 땀을 흘린 이들이 있었다. 지금 그 경과가 어떤지 궁금할 따름이다.

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The Future of Presidential Libraries

The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. (AP)

 

Presidential libraries and museums draw big crowds to otherwise less-than familiar places. Just ask folks in Abilene, Kansas., Little Rock, Ark., or Yorba Linda, Calif., how life might be different if Presidents Eisenhower, Clinton and Nixon hadn't built their monuments to self where they now stand.

 

Congress wants to cut taxpayer costs associated with presidential libraries and archives however, and a new report (PDF) by the National Archives and Records Administration released Wednesday proposed five possible alternatives. It also warned that social networking tools will complicate future presidential record-keeping.

 

The Obama administration's reliance on Web 2.0 and social networking technologies "creates a challenge not yet met by NARA or the rest of government, both in implementation of his directives and in the management of the electronic records created through these initiatives," according to the report. (The report was released the day before the reopening of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta. The five month renovation cost $10 million.)

 

Digitizing presidential records is a costly and time-consuming process and the government needs to think hard about how to do it, the report said. Indeed, technical glitches contributed to the Archive's difficulty in obtaining Bush administration records late last year. The Obama White House is in the process of hiring a contractor to automatically archive all of its online activity as it occurs.

 

The National Archives works with private presidential library foundations to operate the facilities and archive their historical records. Congress first addressed the issue of presidential libraries with the Presidential Libraries Act in 1955. The 1978 Presidential Records Act mandated that a presidential transfer his records to the National Archives at the end of his term. Last year lawmakers approved the Presidential Historical Records Preservation Act, part of which required the Archives to explore ways to cut costs, to provide more rapid access to presidential materials and improve the preservation process.

 

The report proposes five possible changes to how the government and private presidential library foundations own and operate presidential records and museums:

Model 1: The current model (in which both the archival depository and museum are donated to NARA by the Library Foundation), with revisions to the endowment calculation that would require an endowment based on the total size of the building. This model also explores a new basis for the charter between NARA and the Library Foundations.

Model 2: The Presidential archival depository leased by the Government, with a separate Museum managed by the Foundation.

Model 3: The Presidential archival depository donated to NARA by the Foundation, a university, or other non-Federal entity, with a separate Museum managed by the Foundation.

Model 4: A centralized Presidential archival depository funded and managed by NARA, with no museum. Presidential Foundations may build and manage their own museums in a location of their choice.

Model 5: A centralized Presidential archival depository funded and managed by NARA and a Museum of the Presidency built and staffed by NARA. Private funds through a separate Foundation or through other fund-raising would be required to build and sustain the exhibits and the educational and public programs of the Museum.

The report admits "a tension" between the charge to cut costs and the speeding up of access records, while also improving the record-keeping process. Some of the proposed alternatives might cut costs while hampering preservation efforts or slowing access to records. Adopting any of the proposed changes might also inadvertently increase government costs, the report said.

 

A Senate subcommittee will hold hearings on the report at a later date.

 

동영상: Revamped Carter Museum Opens The Associated Press