Since 1941, 10 more presidential libraries have opened around the country, with two more scheduled. One will be for President George W. Bush, and the other will result from the conversion of the private Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California, into a federal facility that includes records of Richard M. Nixon's presidency, now with the Nixon Presidential Materials Staff at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland.
These libraries, all built with nonfederal funds then donated to the federal government, are operated and maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration and staffed by NARA employees who care for the archival records and the museum collections and make them available for research. Although the libraries are federal facilities, they also draw support from affiliated foundations or institutes that help underwrite research grants, outreach programs, exhibits, and other program and facility enhancements.
In this special "Spotlight on NARA," Raymond Geselbracht and Timothy Walch trace the origins of the important 1955 legislation.