Clinton Library meets annual visits goal in 192 days

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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AR_CLINTON_LIBRARY_300K_AROL-?SITE=WDUN&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Bill Clinton's presidential library is poised to match in 6 1/2 months an attendance figure that some experts said could never be reached in a year: 300,000 paid and unpaid visitors through the museum complex's revolving door.

The Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau already had scheduled a party for Thursday night, saying the 300,000th visitor would enter the doors either for a private event Wednesday night or sometime Thursday morning. Because of the way the library figures attendance, it is unlikely that the actual 300,000th visitor could be determined.

After just 192 days of operation and with Arkansas' peak tourism season still ahead, the Clinton Library has the fifth highest attendance total since 1978 for any of the 10 libraries that charge admission

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Rutherford commissioned his own study last year that estimated 329,000 visits for the first year. "We'll easily surpass that," he says now. "We've already been through the worst tourism months and the summer travel season is just beginning."