We’re on a unique tour. We’re at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Well, more precisely, we are under what most people know as the Library.
We’re in the underground storage and research areas, which house millions of documents, photos, artifacts, and video.
The person who oversees the nation’s archives is here, as part of a tour of all 42 National Archive facilities.
"Every day, the National Archives continues to take in records that are produced in paper and digital format...that's our job, and that's our mission," said Dr. Colleen Shogan, who became the 11th Archivist of the United States last May.
She’s tasked with overseeing the preservation of more than 13 billion records which are a key part of our nation’s identity, and making them accessible to the public and government leaders.
"Every day is amazing. I'm here visiting the Reagan Library, which is the largest presidential library in our system. It kind of sends tingles down my spine to see things like the first inaugural address, written in his (President Reagan's) hand."
While most people think of documents when they think of archives, there are also millions of photos and videos. And, there are artifacts, like gifts given to government officials. If someone gave President Reagan a belt buckle or a cowboy hat while he was in office, it’s actually government property.
The President, or Vice President can take home one of those gifts when they leave office if it’s special to them, but they have to pay what’s considered to be fair market value for the item to the government.
Shogan said one of her priorities is to continue the move of the archives into the digital age, putting records and images of artifacts online.
"We are using high resolution digital photography for the artifacts, and are then putting images of them online," said Shogan. "We just started this project, and we have a few presidential libraries that are starting to put them online."
Shogan says they want to make it possible for everyone to access interesting and unusual parts of our history online, even if they never make it to archive facilities. But, she believes that having online libraries will encourage more people to visit and see parts of our history in person.
She only got a glimpse of the Library’s holdings during her visit. It has more than 55 million pages of documents, and more than 60,000 gifts and artifacts.
