The materials in this collection consist of the legislative files of Sheryl K. Albers created between 1991 and 2008, with the bulk of the material dating from 2002 to 2007. These materials consist of memoranda between Representative Albers and other legislators, legislative assistants, and interest groups; informational literature from interest groups; statistical information; drafts of legislative bills; newspaper clippings; legislative bill research; photographs; and a CD-ROM containing electronic records. The papers are divided into five series: CORRESPONDENCE, LEGISLATION, LEGISLATIVE SUBJECT FILES, ELECTRONIC RECORDS, and VISUAL MATERIALS.
The CORRESPONDENCE series contains Congressional Correspondence, 2003, and Surveys, 2004. The Congressional Correspondence contains letters to and from Representative Albers and her counterparts in the Wisconsin Assembly and Senate. The Surveys are communications between Representative Albers and her constituents, including questions about taxes, specifically TABOR, and asked the respondent to rate the importance of this and other issues.
The LEGISLATION series has several files of Wisconsin state bills, bill drafts, amendments, and fiscal breakdowns of the bills and these files range in date from 2005 through 2008. Files in this series are arranged numerically by Assembly Bill (AB), Assembly Joint Resolution (AJR), Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB), and Senate Bill (SB). The Legislative Reference Bureau files contain bill drafts, drafters' notes, summaries of bills, and some notations from the Representative. There is only one Senate Bill in the collection.
LEGISLATIVE SUBJECT FILES is the largest series of the collection and the material in this series ranges in date from 1992 through 2008. Contents of the series include: correspondence on various topics; memoranda between Albers, other legislators, legislative aides, and political activists; topical information; and hand-written notations by Albers and her legislative aides. Particularly well documented are pro-life and stem-cell issues, dating from the period 1992 through 2005. Albers was a pro-life legislator and received a great deal of informational material from pro-life groups like Wisconsin Right to Life, and ephemera from several anti-Planned Parenthood groups. The stem cell material is similar in nature. Another topic of interest to Albers was taxes. She was particularly interested in personal property taxes, the Taxpayer's Amendment (TPA), and the Taxpayers' Bill of Rights (TABOR). These files are also very extensive and range in date from 2001 to 2006. Representative Albers also concentrated on ownership and usage of land and personal property rights. Education, especially technical colleges and the University of Wisconsin-Extension, was also one of Albers's legislative interests. Included in this collection are numerous files on technical colleges in her district.
ELECTRONIC RECORDS is a series of electronic documents on one CD-ROM. The CD-ROM contains three main groups of records: Drafts 2008-09, Issues Pre-2007, and Legislation. There is some overlap between the paper and electronic records, but a significant amount of the information found on the CD-ROM differs from that in the paper portion of the collection. The Legislation file alone has more bill drafts, drafter's notes and emails, fiscal evaluations, amendments, and emails from fellow legislators than the paper collection. This portion of the collection has not been processed. For access to this portion of the collection, please consult archives staff.
The VISUAL MATERIALS series includes a group of publicity photographs of Albers and pictures of her participating in various functions including: opening of a trail, flying with the Air Force, and at Governor Tommy Thompson's birthday party. The photographs are undated.
