Experts: Lincoln library needs better governance, not split

Posted on January 8, 2015

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum opened in 2005. (WJBC file photo)

By The Associated Press

SPRINGFIELD – Experts say making the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum a separate state agency would hamper its ability to modernize.
 
But the report issued Wednesday says operations should be improved between the presidential repository and its overseer, the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.
 
The panel of members from IHPA, the library advisory board and directors of the library's foundation conducted the review in response to a proposal by House Speaker Michael Madigan to break the library and museum from the IHPA. The leaders of both have feuded.
 
The report suggests combining the byzantine governance structures of both into one board which can substitute a professional culture for a bureaucratic one. It also suggests linking the library with other historic sites and generating resources to pay a $12 million debt.

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