Little Rock, Arkansas, May 12: Just call them "Bill" boards. The Clinton Presidential Library Foundation has erected 10 billboards featuring an artist's rendition of the future downtown library, hoping to make Little Rock and its library complex an international tourist destination.
The Clinton Presidential Center will include a library, museum and a park on the Arkansas river, just east of the Interstate 30 Highway, and is expected to open in November 2004.
Eight billboards went up this week on major Arkansas highways near Harrison, Hot Springs, Little Rock, Russellville and Texarkana, and two more in regional tourism hot spots, Memphis, Tennessee; and Branson, Missouri. They will stay in place through November.
"The library has four major missions: one is archival, another is educational, and then there's tourism and economic development," said foundation director Skip Rutherford. "It's time for the tourist part right now."



Rutherford said the library has started talking with the National Civil Rights Museum and Graceland, both at Memphis, about cross-promotional efforts. He said they were natural partnerships because of Clinton's passion for civil-right issues and love for Elvis Presley's music.


Bureau Report