  We introduce a hierarchy of density of states to characterize the charge
distribution in a mesoscopic conductor. At the bottom of this hierarchy are the
partial density of states which represent the contribution to the local density
of states if both the incident and the out-going scattering channel is
prescribed. The partial density of states play a prominent role in measurements
with a scanning tunneling microscope on multiprobe conductors in the presence
of current flow. The partial density of states determine the degree of
dephasing generated by a weakly coupled voltage probe. In addition the partial
density of states determine the frequency-dependent response of mesoscopic
conductors in the presence of slowly oscillating voltages applied to the
contacts of the sample. The partial density of states permit the formulation of
a Friedel sum rule which can be applied locally. We introduce the off-diagonal
elements of the partial density of states matrix to describe charge fluctuation
processes. This generalization leads to a local Wigner-Smith life-time matrix.
