GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Presidents' Day marked an all-time high for hits on the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies Web site, www.allpresidents.org, making it one of the fastest growing Web sites devoted to the American presidency.
The Grand Valley State University center received 5,300 hits on February 21 -- a single-day record. The average had been approximately 3,200 hits per day. The site is less than two years old.
"We are experiencing rapid growth," said Gleaves Whitney, director of the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies, "because people are coming to us for engaging writing, reliable information and provocative insights."
The site features the presidential news of the day, virtual tours of many of the nation's presidential libraries and museums, links to other related sites, and upcoming programming information. It continually puts together timely features to coincide with important days in history or news events. A recent example is a comprehensive treatment of African-American advisors to U.S. presidents.
A popular feature of www.allpresidents.org is Ask Gleaves. This valuable resource was launched less than a year ago and fields questions from around the world on the U.S. presidency. Rather than operating by a search engine, Whitney is calling on his academic background in history, his years as a speechwriter for former Michigan Governor John Engler, and his extensive library to delve into the questions people really want to ask and before Ask Gleaves didn't know where to find the answers. He receives about a dozen new questions every day.
"Ask Gleaves has found its market niche," explains Whitney. "It keeps me sharp because of the challenging questions from presidential junkies -- everything from allegators in the White House to the XYZ Affair."
Whitney can be contacted at 616.331.2770, or through the Hauenstein Center Web site, www.allpresidents.org
