(May 17, 2007)--National archivist Allen Weinstein is tightlipped on whether the potential placement of George W. Bush's presidential library at Southern Methodist University in Dallas is a "done deal."

In an appearance at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, Weinstein said, "It'll be a done deal when the president and those he's designated to find a location tell me it's a done deal."

Weinstein said Mr. Bush's library may have three or four times as many e-mails in its archives as the Clinton library, which has about 20 million e-mails from Clinton's eight years in office.

Weinstein says he hopes to have a new system for storing electronic records in place before the opening of Bush's archives.

SMU announced in December it was entering exclusive talks with the committee charged with recommending the site for the library and both the president and first lady have indicated that SMU, which is Mrs. Bush’s alma mater, was the likely choice for the library and an associated think tank.

The University of Dallas withdrew its bid in January, technically leaving only Baylor University as the only other institution still in the running for the complex.

SMU’s hopes of landing the library moved forward over the weekend when voters in the Dallas suburb of University Park approved a proposal to sell land to the university for possible use for the library.

In March the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church met in Dallas and endorsed SMU’s proposal to lease land for the presidential library on the Dallas campus.

The group must approve leasing any land already in use by the school, and the proposed 36-acre site on the southeast side of campus contains some dorms and a parking lot.

SMU President Gerald Turner said the library, museum and Bush institute may be built on one of two sites in the area.

No formal announcement has yet been made about the site for the library, but one is expected as early as this month.

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