UW Digital Collections puts Wisconsin Blue Book online

More than 150 years of the Wisconsin Blue Books go online starting today in the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections. The digitization project provides worldwide open access on the Internet to facts and figures on the government, people, industry, lifestyle and history of the state of Wisconsin.

The Blue Book is a comprehensive reference tool. The biennial books include biographical information on politicians and office holders, historical information on the state and its economy, and photographs of local communities and the state.

The digital version of the 85 volumes comprising nearly 60,000 pages span the years 1853-2003 and are arranged chronologically for easy browsing. Searches can be performed on all Blue Books or on a single volume.

The UWDCC is a UW System-wide consortium guided by the Wisconsin Idea, the principle that education should influence people’s lives beyond the boundaries of the campus or the state.

Since its founding in 2000, the UW Digital Collections Center has worked collaboratively with UW System faculty, staff and librarians to create and provide access to digital resources that support the teaching and research needs of the UW community and to provide open access at no charge to material of broad research value.

Volumes from 1995-present are available on the Wisconsin Legislative Bureau Web site as PDF files.