The talk of the Reagan library - The buzz among visitors to the facility is about what's not on display: thousands of items that are unaccounted for.

The red carpet laid at the museum's main entrance in the afternoon trailed past a bust of Reagan and was later to be trod by a host of Hollywood celebrities and big-name fashion designers. An aide to Nancy Reagan, who was scheduled to attend, said the former first lady would have no comment on the criticism leveled at the library Wednesday in an audit by the National Archives' inspector general.

But Frederick J. Ryan Jr., president of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation's board of directors, said Nancy Reagan expressed "surprise and disappointment" when he spoke with her Thursday morning about the audit. Ryan, a former Reagan aide, said the allegations of sloppy management practices at the library reflect badly on the National Archives, which runs the Reagan complex and 11 other presidential libraries.

"We're disappointed that the archives as an institution has failed here," said Ryan, who heads Allbritton Communications, a Washington D.C.-based media company. The Reagan foundation raises funds for the hilltop library and museum but does not control its operations, he added.

While pointing out problems at other presidential libraries, the inspector general's audit dealt the most severe criticism on the Reagan library. After an employee was fired for suspected theft earlier this year, poor record-keeping kept officials from determining for sure what it was that might have been stolen, according to the inspector general.

No criminal investigation has been requested, according to local law enforcement officials and a spokesman for the FBI.

The biggest unknowns center around the library's vast collection of "artifacts" -- objects as humble as bumper stickers and as freighted with history as a lacquered Russian samovar given to the Reagans by former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev.

The library also displays gifts from ordinary people, some playing to Reagan's penchant for such Western gear as heavy belt buckles, while others -- such as a brooch that spells out "Just Say No" in rhinestones -- were directed to the first lady.