University of Chicago Quietly Making Push for Obama Library

From The Chicago Sun-Times:

Top U. of C. honchos are “trying to figure out how to encourage the president and first lady to make the University of Chicago a serious contender,” I was told by a source who is knowledgeable about developments to win the library for the U. of C.
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With the election over — and a timetable in place for Obama to leave office — jockeying for the library is expected to break out in the open. Politico reported about Sher’s involvement in the U. of C. library drive on Saturday.
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Journalist Jonathan Alter — a Chicago native — in his book “The Promise,” about Obama’s first year, revealed that Obama was mulling an “online library.”
Wrote Alter, “In the fall of 2009 University of Chicago officials approached the White House about housing Obama’s presidential library. They were told it was too early. To the extent that he had thought about a library, he mused to a friend that maybe it should be an “online library,” not bricks-and-mortar. This almost certainly won’t happen; the demand for a splashy museum will likely be too great. But it said something about his state of mind.”

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