Thursday, January 25, is the 46th anniversary of a very interesting event. It changed the way in which information was communicated from the office of the President of the United States to the average citizen. On that date in 1961, newly- inaugurated president, John F. Kennedy held the first presidential news conference to be televised. Tuesday night, President George W. Bush continued in that 46 year tradition with his televised State of the Union address.

In 46 years time, a lot of presidential speeches have been aired on television. Are all of these speeches gone and forgotten? No, of course not! Many of these speeches are now available in a variety of ways. If you don't remember what President Clinton said on a particular subject, or even what the first President Bush had to say, you can find many of their speeches available online. State of the Union messages from Presidents Bush and Clinton, and one address from the first President Bush, can be found in full text on the GPO access government website.

If you are interested in more than just State of the Union messages, presidential public papers are available in print at the Nashua Public Library for Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt through George W. Bush. Many of these volumes are kept in storage and can be obtained by asking at the reference desk. The papers of the current president, George W. Bush, are kept in the upstairs collection. Presidential papers for George Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush can be browsed online. This material comes with a table of contents, various indexes and a collection of photos which make for fun browsing.

To some people, all of this seems dry, dull and boring. A televised presidential speech just messes up television for the night. For others this is a chance to observe what will become history. People who are interested in politics, history or both, will be interested to know that the National Archives are available on line. Be sure to visit the section Things to do on our website which will give you an overview of what is available there. If you missed out on any of President Bush's radio talks, the text of all of them since 2001 is available on line.

Candidates running for the presidency in 2008 need to keep this anniversary in mind. With constant improvements in technology, the words that a politician says now live on in much more than the minds of the people who hear them.