Presidential Records and Personal Records

Rick Barry is mistaken in his assertion that a spiral notebook kept by former White House chief of staff Andrew H. Card Jr. constitutes a presidential record [letters, Oct. 5].

Mr. Barry did not read far enough into the law. I was an archivist in 1978, the deputy head of presidential libraries at the National Archives, and I helped frame the Presidential Records Act.

I kept a spiral notebook in my pocket, and I used it during negotiations on the text of the legislation as an example of something that, because it was never communicated to anyone, was "private and personal." I regarded the notebook as an extension of memory.

Two congressional staff members and I drafted the bill to contain the following language:

"The term 'presidential records' . . . does not include . . . (A) diaries, journals, or other personal notes serving as the functional equivalent of a diary or journal which are not prepared or utilized for, or circulated or communicated in the course of, transacting Government business."

Mr. Card's spiral notebook was an extension of memory. Let's all be reasonable, as the law must be reasonable.

RICHARD JACOBS

Ocean Pines, Md.