Historians latest group to pile on Bush library

by PegNews wire

DALLAS — Archivists and historians are protesting the Bush presidential library at Southern Methodist University, on the grounds that President Bush's secret-protecting executive order contradicts the open spirit that a library embodies.

The Society of American Archivists plans to a mount a PR campaign to persuade Congress and the university to demand that Bush reverse an executive order he signed in 2001, allowing ex-presidents and their heirs to keep White House papers secret in perpetuity.

"If the Bush folks are going to play games with the records, no self-respecting academic institution should cooperate," said Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists to the DMN.

In 1978, Congress passed the Presidential Records Act to guarantee that administration records belong to the public, with provisions for a 12-year embargo. Bush changed that in November 2001, allowing former presidents to block release of any records for any reason and any length of time.

Emily Sheketoff, executive director of the American Library Association's office in Washington, said the spirit of the executive order "completely goes against the spirit of the essence of a library. ... One of the core values of a library is making information available, in a usable way, as transparently as possible."

The actions by the archivist group follows a petition drafted by the SMU faculty calling for a vote on the Bush Institute, a think-tank that will be part of the library complex.

Posted by T.G.