The Bernice Zimmer papers date from 1932 to 2010 and measure 12 linear inches. The bulk of the collection consists of diaries. Additional biographical information includes Zimmer's undated, handwritten autobiography, a notebook of songs, her handwritten high school graduation programs, a few photocopied photographs, and a letter to an anonymous person about her home life during World War II while Lou Zimmer was serving in the U.S. Army

Zimmer's diaries are filled with records of events spent with friends and family and accounts of her faith. She wrote about playing cards late into the night with Lou or friends and who she had coffee with that day. She described whose hair she set, when she went to get a permanent, and other daily happenings. After her husband's death, she wrote more frequently about her activities and charity work at church.

Zimmer's 1932 to 1934 diary recounts her senior year of high school and a few years after. It is mostly filled with who she socialized with and where and with whom she went dancing. The 1966 to 2006 diaries record Zimmer's life after her children married and left home. During this period, the only year she did not keep a diary was 1987, the year her husband died.