The New 2025-2026 Wisconsin Blue Book is here!
First published in 1853 as a manual for legislators, the Blue Book's mission is much the same today "to furnish the legislature and the public with information on state officers and governmental organization, along with statistical information and artricles of general interest."
Suppose you want to know how the legislature conducts its business or the duties and organizational structure of executive branch departments? Maybe, you're interestred in significant events in Wisconsin history, or the state's agriculture, or matters of public finance? These topics and many more are in the Wisconsin Blue Book.
Should you want to look at earlier editions of the Wisconsin Blue Book online? You're in luck! The UW Digital Collections provides online access to nearly the entire run from the first 1853 edition through the 2021-2022 edition. The Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB) Blue Book archive will fill in any gaps covering the years 2005-2025.
Recent editions of the Wisconsin Blue Book showcase a feature article. This edition's feature article "Going Global: Wisconsin's Sister States" is one for the history books.
The story of Wisconsin's Sister States begins during the Cold War. President Kennedy had started the Alliance for Progress, and the U.S. State Department encouraged such sister state relationships to ward off the threat of communism through global goodwill and the soft power these programs offered.
Nicaragua was the first of Wisconsin's Sister States. A partnership formed in 1964 that included people-to-people exchanges and programs in such areas as rural electrification, public health, and industrial development. More sister-state partnerships followed with the state of Hessen in Germany, and the Chinese province of Heilongjiang. Hessen has been a part of the UW student exchange program for 45 years. Additionally, Taiwan, Chiba Prefecture in Japan, and Jalisco, Mexico would each join as sister states with Wisconsin to establish "a solid personal trust relationship" that fostered trade, scientific, and cultural exchanges between the people of their respective states. The article offers a much more complete picture of the establishment of these sister-state relationships, and the many governors of Wisconsin and their counterparts who provided the political goodwill to make these partnerships possible.
You can get your very own copy of the 2025-2026 Wisconsin Blue Book for free from your state representative by visiting their official Assembly or Senate legislative website and click on the links for "Resources / Constituent Services." or Facebook page and filling out their specific online request form, or by emailing their office directly with your name and mailing address to receive this helpful guide to Wisconsin government.
A print copy of the Wisconsin Blue Book is available for you to check out from the UW Law Library Reserve Collection (Circulation Desk). Call number: JK6074 .A35.
Submitted by Eric Taylor, Evening Reference Librarian on February 28, 2026
This article appears in the categories: Law Library
