World libraries: George W. Bush’s electronic archive formed in USA

Archivists responsible for putting together the presidential library of former President George W. Bush are tasked with processing 80 terabytes of electronic information - 20 times the Clinton administration's four terabytes.

Bush's electronic archives contain more than 200 million e-mails, compared with about 20 million in former President Bill Clinton's. The Bush administration e-mails alone would take up an estimated 600 million printed pages, said Alan Lowe, director of Bush's presidential library and museum. Combined with 70 million paper documents, the haul far eclipses the 550 to 580 million printed pages Lowe estimates are in all other National Archives' presidential libraries.

"In the old days, the National Archives went in and packed up trucks and trucks full of paper," Lowe said. The preponderance of electronic files presents new challenges, ranging from dealing with the sheer volume to ensuring consistent redacting of information in an e-mail chain that may have been sent back and forth dozens of times. Lockheed Martin Corp. has created the Electronic Records Archives system for the National Archives that is specifically designed to preserve the federal government's digital records. Lowe said the system was designed to ensure digital files will be accessible as computer programs evolve.

On Jan. 20, 2014 - five years to the date after Bush left office - citizens will be able to request access to his administration's archives through the Freedom of Information Act.

The George W. Bush Presidential Center - including the library, museum and a policy institute - is set to open in February 2013 on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Until then, the archives are being kept at a large warehouse in the Dallas suburb of Lewisville. Aside from electronic and paper files, the archives also will include about 42,000 artifacts ranging from the bullhorn Bush used when visiting ground zero days after Sept. 11, 2001, to extravagant gifts from other heads of state.

George W. Bush's presidential library will be the 13th overseen by the National Archives and Records Administration; the first was President Herbert Hoover's. Some earlier presidents have libraries that aren't part the National Archives' system and other presidential records are kept at the Library of Congress, Lowe said.