The correspondence in this series was maintained as a personal reading file by Mary Shirley during successive assignments at the World Bank from 1980 to 1995 serving as: Economist/Loan Officer, Country Programs Department I (LC1D), Office of the Regional Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean, 1980 - 1982; Senior Economist, Projects Advisory Staff (PAS), Office of the Vice President, Operations Policy (OPSVP), 1983; Senior Economist and later Public Enterprises Adviser, Public Sector Management Unit (PPDPS), OPSVP, 1983 - 1987; Public Enterprises Adviser, Public Sector Management and Private Sector Development Division (CECPS), Country Economics Department, Office of the Vice President, Development Economics and Chief Economist (DECVP), 1987 - 1990; Chief, CECPS, 1990 - 1993; and Chief, Finance and Private Sector Development (PRDFP), Policy Research Department (PRD), 1993 - 1995.

Incoming correspondence is sometimes filed with copies of letters, memoranda, reports, papers, and informal communications prepared by Shirley. Shirley's earliest correspondence while assigned to LC1D was primarily with Division Chief Francisco Aguirre-Sacasa and government officials. The majority of the correspondence in the reading file centers on her work after leaving LC1D in 1982. The subjects of much of this later correspondence, exchanged primarily with Bank staff, relate to public enterprise issues, particularly in developing countries; private sector development; and privatization. Research and projects in all of these areas are covered in her correspondence.

Throughout the series are Back-to-Office Reports (BTOs) prepared by Shirley following numerous missions she led to various parts of Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. She also represented the Bank at meetings of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) in Paris (1987, 1990) when issues relating to private sector development were discussed. BTOs for these meetings are part of the file. Correspondence concerning Shirley's participation in the Committee on Private Sector Development and other Bank initiatives, along with a small amount of correspondence concerning her work on the World Development Report at the end of her LC1D assignment in 1982, are in the series. Throughout the series are letters of invitation for speaking engagements from academic institutions and professional groups both within the United States and abroad and Shirley's responses.