When a United States President leaves office, the records of the President's administration are collected and removed from the White House offices.
Some records are Presidential records, meaning they are public records.
Some records are personal, meaning they are private papers. Applying the standards for the release of Presidential records for public inspection takes time and much work by archival staff. This process is just beginning for the records created by the Clinton Administration. We at the Clinton Presidential Materials Project, part of NARA, will devote most of our efforts of the next few years to preserving, arranging, reviewing and describing the archival and museum holdings while the future Presidential library is under construction. As we process collections, archivists will create preliminary finding aids and develop information about the materials for our web site.