The collection at the University of Iowa Library makes available to historians and political scientists much information about the evolution of the Iowa Democratic Party's Caucus Convention Process during the years 1968 to 2003, since the documents include many official minutes of Rules Committees, Conventions, the State Central Committee, and Constitution Revision Committees.

During the years following 1974 the Iowa Democratic Party's Caucus Convention Process played a significant role in the beginning of the official U.S.A. Presidential races. Smith was a member of a small committee of about six members who recommended the shifting of the thousands of Iowa Democratic Party's 1,784 Precinct Caucuses to the likely cold late January or early February date --- purely for the practical reason that volunteers who run the whole Caucus-Convention-Process needed more time (five weeks) between stages in the process, to carry them out reliably; and the District Conventions were to be held on a separate date mid way between the County Conventions and the State Convention. (District Conventions had previously been brief events the night before the State Convention.) The whole extended process had to be done in a timely way before the National Convention in the summer. There was no talk about any advantage to Iowa in hosting the first official steps in the nomination of the Democratic Party's Candidate for President of the U.S.A.

The overviews' descriptions suggests that the collection of documents totals about 24 feet thick, and that they are stored in ten boxes in the University of Iowa Library. The nature of the contents are indicated in extensive notes available at: Iowa Democratic Party Official Records.