CORRESPONDENCE: Correspondence Books, 1983-2000

Summary: The Correspondence Books subseries includes "Correspondence Books," "Ad Hoc Correspondence Books," and "Daily Correspondence." This correspondence was kept together by date, and bound. In most cases, each book also contains an index which lists each piece of correspondence that was sent, by day. In the earlier years of Lautenberg's office, between 1983 and 1990, these books were called "Correspondence Books," and from 1991 to 2000 they were known as "Daily Correspondence." For the years 1991 to 1994, the office also created "Ad-Hoc Correspondence Books" (8 folders), which contain letters for which an official office response was not planned, and so required special responses. The office stopped maintaining all of these types of materials after Lautenberg's third term.

Each Correspondence Book generally begins with an item-level index list of letters received and/or sent, with dates, name(s), issues, and brief notes on the correspondence. A large percentage of the correspondence in the books are outgoing letters from Lautenberg's office. Where a letter exchange is documented with the original letter and the office's response, the correspondents are largely individuals writing on behalf of an organization, or a state or federal department.

For the year 1988, the office organized the Correspondence Books by Congress and Session (100th Congress, 2nd Session).