Libraries -- and !! LIBRARIES !!

Left frosty Clinton, MS, headed past Vicksburg, and up through northeast Louisiana & southeast Arkansas. Hit the William J. Clinton Presidential Center in time for lunch. Paid the extra $$ to rent the "acoustiguide" devices that play President Clinton's personal comments about each of thirty numbered stations through the museum.

Seeing the new Lincoln museum in Springfield & the Clinton museum on the same trip provides fresh experiences to compare and contrast them.

Clinton tried very hard to integrate his installation into its setting. It sits on former railroad and warehouse / industrial land. The museum and archives are new buildings; the old Choctaw Depot is reused as a research / study center. The associated Museum Store is in a reconditioned old building on the edge of the old downtown, on a street renamed President Clinton Avenue. The museum store and museum both sit on a high bank overlooking the Arkansas River. They are part of an effort to make the old downtown a "destination." Interstate 30 / Highway 65 crosses the river at this point, and President Clinton Avenue runs under the interstate.

The Lincoln Presidential Museum is serving somewhat the same function in downtown Springfield, Illinois. A 1908 railroad depot serves as the "visitor center" for the Lincoln related sites in Springfield, with the museum, library, and visitor parking garage just across the streets to the east and north.

One speculates how soon either of these institutions will become "dated" and have to be re-configured. Both institutions have a definite view of their potential audience, and the displays are designed to speak to viewers of the present day. Some of President Clinton's personal comments on the "acoustiguides" are already "dated" because they were made in the context of political and financial settings that have substantially altered.

Some of the "cutting edge presentation technology" pieces in the Lincoln Museum let the gee-whiz factor overpower the content. Clinton of course has a lot more stuff to select from to tell his story.

Now for the books & libraries plug. The Clinton museum has several displays -- and President Clinton's personal comments reinforce the message of those exhibits -- noting the importance of books and the ideas they convey to President Clinton. He noted books he kept shelved in the Oval Office, and commented on what he found so worthwhile in them.