skorton: about $450 million. each of the presidential libraries, as well as the flagship national archives have private foundations that supplement that. susan: your government structure is interesting. there is a board of regents. there is a chief justice, vice president, and leaders of congress serve on it. you are stealing my thunder. it is an interesting governing system. 9 are private citizens. there are eight public service. 6 sitting members of congress. not necessarily leaders, but three from the house and three from the senate. the chancellor of the smithsonian is the chief justice. i report to the board. i am not a political appointee or a federal employee. these missoni and is something called -- the smithsonian is something called a trust instrumentality. 1/3 are federal employees, one third are not. we have 6000 volunteers on-site. you can see them when you come to the library and archives. we have another 6000 or so digital volunteers from the far. it is an interesting governing process, and it work

skorton? >> i have great confidence and faith in the american people, i really do, and i think they want and deserve to know the whole story. and so we also strive to do what my colleagues strive to do, and that is to let history speak for itself. several -- many areas, virtually any area in the smithsonian tells stories that are uplifting and stories not our proudest moment, african-american museum, national museum of the american indian and many others. my point of view is that the american people have a right and that i have confidence in that they want to know the whole story. by the way, in case it comes up in your thinking, i think that's true of our elected leaders as well. i think they are people who want to know what's going on and want to have us hang onto it, so whether it's the library of congress, the archives, or the smithsonian, they can access it the same way the public can, that's information they can count on at face value. >> since you all have to work on future planning, le

david skorton, carla hayden,

smith sewnial secretary david skorton, library of congress carla hayden and archivist of the united states david fario. this is american history tv, only on c-span3. >> we are in the library of congress for a conversation among three