LISNews: Librarian News

A group of Methodists is stepping up efforts to force a church vote in July on whether Southern Methodist University has the right to lease out land for the George W. Bush Presidential Library and policy institute.
Rev. Andrew Weaver, an SMU alumnus who is spearheading a fight against the land deal from New York, said he hopes to force a vote at a regional meeting in Dallas in July and persuade delegates not to ratify the mission council action. His group so far has collected about 11,200 signatures on a petition, he said.
More here: Bush Library at SMU Still Protested.

A Press Release From Judicial Watch says the National Archives told U.S. District Court Judge James Robertson during a December 17, 2007 court hearing that a portion of Hillary Clinton's White House office records will be ready for release by the end of January 2008; after which it will notify President Clinton. Under the Presidential Records Act, President Clinton has upon notice thirty days to review the documents. The National Archives will also provide a status report of President Clinton's review by March 1, 2008. The records include Hillary Clinton's White House daily schedule.

The Washington Post Reports Bill Clinton's presidential library raised more than 10 percent of the cost of its $165 million facility from foreign sources, with the most generous overseas donation coming from Saudi Arabia, according to interviews. The royal family of Arabia gave the Clinton facility in Little Rock about $10 million, roughly the same amount it gave toward the presidential library of George H.W. Bush, according to people directly familiar with the contributions.

Republican Mitt Romney has decided to mirror the example of John F. Kennedy, who famously confronted questions about his religious faith and the presidency in a speech 47 years ago in Texas.

The former Massachusetts governor will speak Thursday about politics and his Mormon faith at the George Bush Presidential Library in College Station. NPR reported this morning that the fact that Romney is a Mormon seems to have more of an effect on voters than the Mormonism of his father, George Romney, or Mo Udall of (Dem AZ during the 1970s and 80s).