The public acts subseries provides some intellectual access to enrolled bills through its summaries and notes. This access is contingent on knowing the year of passage for the bill. The publication, Acts of the Legislation of the State of Michigan, provides similar access with the advantage of a subject index at the back of the book. The Bentley Library has this publication.
The Issues Development, 1982-1990 series consists of a diverse body of materials generated by an office in constant flux caused by the many changing spheres and duties falling to the office. The series comprises thirty-two linear feet of materials, primarily correspondence and memoranda, which develop and define the administration's position on issues, arranged in three subseries: general staff, local government, and special projects. Researchers should note that each of these subseries reflects a distinct function of the office and that the office had varying degrees of control over the work. This is especially true of the local government and special projects subseries, which were included in the Issues series to facilitate access, but which in fact had considerable autonomy. The researcher is advised that the papers of Nancy Austin-Schwartz, head of the Issues Office, are with her other materials in the Chief of Staff/Executive Assistant series.
The general staff subseries is arranged alphabetically by staff member, with parenthetical notes on which issues the staff member handled, and consists of nearly seven linear feet of correspondence and memos. The materials extant from each staff member range from a single folder to nearly two linear feet. This subseries is especially strong in evidencing administration positions on issues related to the arts, education, environment, civil rights, and health and human services. This strength is limited to the years 1983-1986, when responses to issue-oriented correspondence remained in this office; during the second term, responses to issue-oriented mail is retained by the Correspondence Office. These two runs of materials should be treated as complementary halves forming the whole picture of the administration's position on the issues. Researchers should also note that the Washington Office series contains materials related to issues. (See also Correspondence Unit, Boxes 34-46)