The Presidental Library system is currently made up of 11 different libraries each with a library and museum. It is governed by the Office of Presidential Libraries, a division of the United States National Archives The National Archives creates a Presidential materials project to maintain a president's works, recordings, etc. until a new Presidential library is built and transferred to the Government. This not, however, the case with the Richard M. Nixon Library. It does include a Nixon Presidential Materials Staff to manage much of his work because of the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act (Most likely the result of Watergate) however.
The system was started in 1939 when President Roosevelt donated his personal and Presidential papers to the government. It was added on to in 1955 when the Presidential Libraries Act was passed in 1955. In 1986 another Presidential Libraries Act was passed, limiting the size of private donations to the size of the library.
The Current Presidental Library System (Opened; Location)
- George Bush Library (?; College Station, Texas)
- Jimmy Carter Library (1987; Atlanta, Georgia)
- William Jefferson Clinton Library (2003; Little Rock, Arkansas)
- Dwight D. Eisenhower Library (?; Abilene, Kansas)
- Gerald R. Ford Library and Museum (?; Ann Arbor, Michigan)
- Herbert Hoover Library(?; West Branch, Iowa)
- Lyndon B. Johnson Library (?; Austin, Texas)
- John F. Kennedy Library (1979; Boston, Massachusetts)
- Ronald Reagan Library (1988; Simi Valley, California)
- Richard M. Nixon Library* (1990; Yorba Linda, California)
- Franklin D. Roosevelt Library (1941; Hyde Park, New York)
- Harry S. Truman Library (?; Independence, Missouri)
* The Richard M. Nixon Library is not a part of the federal presidential library system. It was built all with private funds and as such has much more control over Nixon's works. It is placed there because it is a library.
Sources
http://www.nara.gov/