Hawaii launches campaign to set up Obama Library

Washington, July 18 (ANI): The U.S. state of Hawaii is waging a campaign to bring President Barack Obama's records to the Aloha State by setting up a presidential library.

According to The Politico, Reed Dasenbrock, Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs at the University of Hawaii's flagship campus in Manoa, said the school has been prepping for the opportunity for years.

Faculty members have met with officials from just about every one of the 13 presidential libraries in the United States, he said.

In 2010, Dasenbrock had led a delegation to the National Archives, which oversees presidential papers, he added.

"Obama won the election because he out-organized the opposition," Dasenbrock told Politico.

"No one thought in 2004 that he was going to win in 2008. [Similarly,] we're a much poorer, smaller, less well-known institution than the University of Chicago, if they're competing...we don't want to seem like we're organizing prematurely, but it's a decision the president will make sometime after the next election and therefore we need to be ready," he added.

In Hawaii, two places have been discussed as potential future library locations: one at the university's West Oahu campus, and the other on state-controlled land in Honolulu, "a stunning [site] close to the ocean with great views and great access for tourists," Dasenbrock e-mailed.

Recently, the University of Chicago was seriously exploring a bid for a presidential library.

A committee was appointed to assess the issues surrounding a possible presidential library on campus, University of Chicago Law Prof. Geoffrey Stone confirmed.

Stone is spearheading the committee, though he said discussion of a presidential library is "premature" and that the committee has "hardly met."

Susan Donius, the director of the Office of Presidential Libraries at the National Archives, said fights over housing presidential libraries are often fierce.

"Having a presidential library in a community is a wonderful thing," Donius said. "...It brings in tourism and wonderful public programming opportunities, so obviously there's always going to be intense competition to get a library into a community," Donius added. (ANI)