LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Dec. 5 (UPI) -- Former President Bill Clinton used a gold-painted shovel to break ground Wednesday for his $200 million presidential library, saying its mission will be to aim more toward the future than the past.
At the site of the William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Center, Clinton spoke to about 1,000 people in front of the century-old Choctaw Railroad Depot that will house the University of Arkansas's Clinton School of Public Service.
"The mission of this library and foundation ... will be largely devoted to the future," Clinton said.
"The spirit behind the whole project is not only to help people to understand what was going on in America over the eight years I served as president. But mostly to help them understand what kind of country we are becoming, what our opportunities and our responsibilities at home and abroad are, and what kinds of choices we should make," he said.
The site for the presidential library on the south side of the Arkansas River is within a 27-acre city park that once was an industrial area. The location has spurred further development of the city's nearby River Market district, spawning new loft apartments and a high-rise office complex.
Staffers are cataloging 100 million documents, 2 million photographs and more than 75,000 artifacts for the library scheduled to open in 2004.
"This library will house the documents that tell the story of the last years of the 20th Century and the dawn of the New Millennium," Clinton said.
The Clinton documents will be available on the Internet.
"You will be able to read the memos that went back and forth to see, for example, how we decided to get involved in Bosnia and Kosovo, the arguments we had about what we should and shouldn't do, how we put together the economic plan in 1993 and the Balanced Budget Act in 1996, and how we passed welfare reform and how we failed to pass health care," he said.
Scholars and the public will be able to read the memos, including his famous hand-written comments in the margins.
"The people who work for me say the reason I don't want to seal those documents is people can't read those notes anyway," he said, laughing.
Clinton has been critical of efforts by officials in other administrations -- some of whom are working for President George W. Bush -- to extend the time those documents can remain secret.
