REAGAN LIBRARY OFFERS A PEEK; VISITORS GIVEN ARCHIVE TOUR.

Byline: Kevin F. Sherry Daily News Staff Writer

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum gave visitors a behind-the-scenes look at the facility on Sunday to celebrate its sixth anniversary.

The one-day-only tour started with a look at the library's research areas, which are open to the public but most often frequented by scholars, historians and researchers.

The library houses 50 million pages of documents, including memos and papers of every agency from White House Legal Affairs to the National Security Council, said Mark A. Hunt, the facility's director.

Visitors got a look at the variety of film, audio and video archives of the Reagan presidency.

The archives also store 1.6 million photographs, many of them originals taken by White House staff photographers. These include official state portraits that hung in the White House during the Reagan years as well as candid moments.

The tour also included a look at some of the more than 75,000 artifacts collected by the Reagans. Most of them are gifts received by Reagan during his eight years in office and range from the sublime to the ridiculous, Hunt said.

One pair of padded slippers features the Reagans' heads, Hunt said. Another pair of sneakers were decorated with artwork and spurs, he said.

``I don't think they were ever worn, at least not to any state functions,'' he joked.

Visitors also oohed and aahed at the Reagans' private suite of offices and living areas, which are used by the Reagans to entertain guest speakers and world visitors.

During the past six years, the library has greeted more than 1.05 million visitors, Hunt said.