Resource Highlight: DiscoverGov

Trying to find federal publications? Let me introduce you to your new best friend DiscoverGov!

A brief description from the DiscoverGov website:

“DiscoverGov provides simple, one-stop searching across multiple U.S. Federal Government databases including GPO's Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) and GovInfo. It will retrieve reports, articles, and citations while providing direct links to selected resources and publications available online.”

The Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) is a massive online catalog containing bibliographic information about federal publications dating back to our nation’s founding; however, as their website states, it is important to understand that “the CGP is a bibliography, not a document repository” (more information about the CGP can be found on their About page).

GovInfo, unlike the CGP, is a repository where you can download digitized versions of federal documents.

So why not just use GovInfo to find documents? You can use GovInfo to find authenticated digital versions of federal documents; however, if you search for a document that hasn’t been digitized yet, your search won’t turn up anything.

Think of DiscoverGov as a more user-friendly version of the CGP with the benefits of GovInfo added.

Let’s give it a try! Here are the search results from a Basic search for John Qunicy Adams in DiscoverGov:

In the search results, it clearly states if the material is available in digital format – it will say Online access: 

For this example, select the 2nd item in the results list:

Permalink to the full item record

Once in the record, scroll to the bottom where it says Links – then click “Link to Resource” which will take you to a PDF of this document.

PDFs like this one, are hosted on the repository GovInfo and can also be accessed directly through GovInfo:

It’s important to verify that the documents you are accessing are legitimate – always check for the GPO watermark that indicates the document has been authenticated.

More information on verifying authentication can be found here. 

If you run into any issues trying to locate federal documents, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our Reference Department! One of our librarians will be happy to help!


Maryellen Larkin

Government Documents Librarian

Trashers on Defense in the Library!

Our road trip through the thirteen original colonies continues this month, but finding the Georgia State Bird, the Brown Thrasher, took a little bit of digging. There is no bird with that name included in Birds of America, but that is because when Audubon depicted it in the 1830s, it was identified as the Ferruginous Thrush (plate 116). The word thrasher is believed to be derived from thrush, which leads to some naming confusing. And "ferruginous" is not a standard color, but is used to describe something as rust-colored, a warm reddish-brown, like the male bird shown here (top center). 

In October, we try to share a print with a spooky connection, and this print fits the bill for that, too! In this print, a slithering snake is shown attacking the nest with a group of thrashers in defense mode. Though one might have fallen victim, the other three are putting up a fight, and the snake might be in trouble here. The Brown Thrasher is known as a territorial and aggressive bird that can fend off humans and large predators with a sharp curved bill that can draw blood. Be sure to visit us from October 6 through November 10 to see this dramatic print in person.

Catch up on our previous spooky Audubons here: Barn Owl, Raven, Common Crow Blackbird, and Vulture.

Elizabeth Roscio

Preservation Librarian

“There is Power in a Union”

The Socialist Labor Party (SLP), established in 1876, is the oldest socialist political party in the United States. Our SLP collection contains campaign literature, meeting and rally announcements, platform pamphlets and flyers, programs, ballots, and reports documenting the Party’s activities in Massachusetts from 1884 to 1903. You can read more about the SLP in the collection finding aid and in this previous blog post. For now, I’d like to focus on something that piqued my interest within this collection as I worked to answer a recent reference question – that is, the Scandinavian musical influence on U.S. labor movements.

Pictured above are the flyers for the annual Labor Day Grand Joint Picnic at Amory Grove in Roxbury hosted by the SLP and the Scandinavian Socialist Club of Boston. The 1899 and 1900 picnics featured a concert performed in part by the Swedish Glee Club (featured on the flyer shown below) and the Scandinavian Socialist Singing Chorus.

A flyer for a charity concert given
by the Swedish Glee Club of Boston
at Dudley Street Opera House
in Roxbury on December 3, 1899

This unexpected subject matter caught my attention for very personal reasons. My great-grandfather John immigrated to the United States from Northern Sweden in 1928. He married my great-grandmother, Florence, the daughter of Swedish immigrants. I’ve come to appreciate the unmistakable Scandinavian influence on my upbringing, something I took for granted in childhood. I also serve as the union steward for State Library staff members of SEIU Local 509 and am deeply interested in labor history. Until diving into Ms. Coll. 176, I had no idea there was a Scandinavian influence on Massachusetts’ own labor history, let alone a musical influence.

According to historian and archivist Ulf Jönson, Scandinavian immigrants to the U.S. from the 1850s to the 1920s, particularly those who found industrial jobs in cities, organized themselves mainly within the SLP and the Socialist Party of America. Scandinavian workers most often chose to establish all-Scandinavian ethnic sections of trade unions and political parties, rather than national subgroups. It appears Scandinavian immigrants organized themselves similarly within the Swedeville area of Norwood, Massachusetts outside of Boston. A People’s Guide to Greater Boston describes Swedeville as the center of Norwood’s Finnish community in addition to its Swedish immigrant population. In Norwood, a socialist retail cooperative store opened in 1909 and operated until 1953. The store was initially a branch of a coop called Turva founded in Quincy.

A 1900 pamphlet describing dance lessons to be hosted by the SLP at Cochrane’s Hall in Malden

Scandinavian immigrants joined the SLP in greater numbers than any other ethnic group and were consistently at the forefront of demands for workers’ rights and unionization, according to historian Patricia Fanning. They built halls for community gatherings, formed drama, athletic, and sewing clubs, hosted educational and political lectures, and of course, sang and played music together.

A circa 1901 labor song book published by Labor Press in Lynn

A pamphlet, no matter how good, is never read more than once, but a song is learned by heart and repeated over and over, and I maintain that if a person can put a few cold, common sense facts into a song, and dress them up in a cloak of humor to take the dryness off of them, he will succeed in reaching a great number of workers... - Joe Hill, 1914

Though he was not a member of the SLP, Joe Hill (born Joel Emmanuel Hägglund) was a Swedish American labor activist, poet, and songwriter remembered as a martyr and folk hero within U.S. labor movements following his execution in 1915. He was an itinerant worker for much of his life and was an organizer with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Hill had been born into poverty in Northern Sweden, forced to work in factories as a child after his father’s death on the job. Following his mother’s death in 1902, he emigrated to the U.S. He worked various jobs, moving westward across the country, writing songs as he went. He saw his music as a means to build class consciousness and build solidarity among workers, and he intended his songs to be sung as a group activity rather than by soloists. Hill’s lyrics were known for their humor and satire, mocking abusive bosses and the wealthy. Generations of American musicians have been influenced by Joe Hill - Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Paul Robeson, and Joan Baez to name a few.

Sheet music cover courtesy of
the Library of Congress 

From The Rebel Girl by Joe Hill:

She’s a rebel girl, a rebel girl.

She’s working class: the strength of this world.

From Maine to Georgia, you’ll see

Her fighting for you and for me.

Yes, she’s there by your side

With her courage and pride.

She’s unequaled anywhere.

And I’m proud to fight for freedom

With the rebel girl.

Alyssa Persson
Special Collections Processing Archivist


Related Collection

Ms. Coll. 51 – Socialist Labor Party National Board of Appeals Records, 1891-1896

State Library Newsletter - October Issue

Hello October! Our monthly newsletter is out now and full of information about upcoming events, seasonal displays, a newly cataloged item, and more! 

Pictured here is a preview, but the full issue can be accessed by clicking here. And you can also sign up for our mailing list to receive the newsletter straight to your inbox.

Establishing the Minutemen in 1774

This year marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and in celebration of that anniversary, the State Library launched the exhibit Raising the Alarm: Revolutionary Broadsides at the State Library. Using broadsides from 1773 through 1779, the exhibit tells part of the story of the American Revolution in Massachusetts while also highlighting a significant primary source resource in our collection. Due to the nature of the cases, the exhibit utilizes facsimiles, but each month for the duration of the exhibit, one featured broadside will be on display in our Collection Spotlight case – this month we’re sharing a broadside notice issued on October 26, 1774 following a meeting held by the Provincial Congress in Cambridge that established town militias.

Last month’s display of the broadside related to the Boston Port Bill referenced the Intolerable (or Coercive) Acts, which were a series of punitive acts against the colonists following the destruction of tea in Boston Harbor in December 1773. The Acts also revoked the Massachusetts Charter and with that, changed the nature of the Governor’s Council, the governing body which had previously been elected by assembly and would now be appointed by the King. Consequently, colonists felt they had lost their right to self-government, which led them to create their own governing body. This broadside puts us right in the thick of that moment. On October 5 through 7, representatives of the now disbanded General Court met in Salem and organized as the Provincial Congress, choosing delegates and officers, with John Hancock as Chair and Benjamin Lincoln as Clerk (note his name at the bottom of the broadside). The Provincial Congress became the de facto government, with authority to govern the rebellious portions of Massachusetts. This authority included both collecting taxes and raising a militia. After the initial meetings in Salem, the Provincial Congress met again in Concord from October 11 through the 14, where they focused on organizing committees to bring order to their cause during this time of revolt and political crisis, resulting in the formation of Committees of Safety. The Provincial Congress met again in Cambridge on October 26, and the broadside on display this month was published and distributed following that meeting.

This broadside was previously on display in 2024 as we celebrated the beginning of MA 250. Click here to read that post, which describes the pivotal Provincial Congress meeting that established town militias, or the “minutemen” that we so often hear about in Revolutionary history. And though this broadside was on display just two years ago, it is safe to display again for a one-month duration. The Collection Spotlight case has a microclimate conditioned to 68% relative humidity, and its viewing panel is “SmartGlass” which has UV filters and a layer of light-controlling film. When not in use, the glass portion of the case is dark, until it is activated by a button which lights the case for 30 seconds. While we don't frequently repeat items in our Collection Spotlight case, we make an exception when it aligns with an exhibit or important anniversary, and the measures in our SmartGlass case allow us to safely do so.

Step back into October 1774 by visiting us from September 29 through November 3 to see this broadside on display. Click here to read about the previously shared Raising the Alarm broadsides.


Elizabeth Roscio
Preservation Librarian

Author Talk with Byron Williams

• Liberty and Equality in America: Examining the Radical and Paradoxical Legacy of the Declaration of Independence
• Wednesday, October 7, 2026. 12pm - 1:00pm
• In-person and Virtual event. No registration required.
• State Library of Massachusetts - Room 341, Massachusetts State House
• Livestream on YouTube

The State Library Author Talks Series welcomes author, adjunct professor, and former NPR-affiliate host, Byron Williams, as our October speaker.

This is an in-person and virtual event. The livestream available on our YouTube channel courtesy of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Broadcast Services. Tune in at noon!

Be sure to sign up for our Author Talks newsletter and follow our social media channels (Instagram, Facebook, and X) for the latest information on our visiting authors. If you are unable to attend, the recording will be posted to our YouTube channel to watch anytime - view all past recordings here!

About the book: Byron Williams’ sixth book examines the central tension between America's founding ideals of liberty and equality and the country's often contradictory history. Williams looks at issues including slavery, westward expansion, capitalism, civil rights, education, and civil liberties. As the nation celebrates its 250th anniversary, Williams takes a timely look at the Declaration of Independence and reflects on America's founding promises versus its lived reality and how this gap will shape the nation's future.

About the author: Byron Williams is a columnist, author, former NPR-affiliate host, and adjunct professor. His weekly social/political column appears in the Huffington Post, the Winston Salem Journal and the Bay Area News Group.

Williams' most recent literary entry, Liberty and Equality in America, is a second edition to his 2020 offering The Radical Declaration: An Enlightened America Idea, five thought provoking essays that uses the Declaration of Independence to examine the American narrative through its stated commitments of liberty and equality and its unstated silent partner, paradox; it was ranked #1 by Amazon for Historical essays. In 2022, he penned Our American Experiment, a collection of fictionalized short stories critiquing the American moment. In 2013, he wrote 1963: The Year of Hope and Hostility, which won the 2014 International Book Award for US History.

In 2010 and 2011, Williams' work was nationally recognized by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), which nominated him for “Columnist of the Year.” Williams has spoken across the country and appeared on numerous television and radio news programs, including CNN, MSNBC, ABC Radio, Fox News, and National Public Radio. In 2026, Williams was featured by USA Today, along with other noted scholars, writers, and artists examining the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

As always, this author talk is free and open to all. If you are able to join us in person for this talk, attendees will be able to participate in a question-and-answer session with the author. Books will be available to purchase after the event; $20.00 cash, check, or Venmo accepted.

Any questions or concerns, please email us at AuthorTalks.StateLibrary@mass.gov. For more information on the State Library Author Talks series, please visit our site.


April Pascucci
On behalf of the Author Talks Committee

Resource Spotlight: Very Short Introduction Books!

The State Library recently added some new resources to its collections. These latest additions are from the Oxford University Press’s A Very Short Introduction series. Some of our newest titles include: 

• Asian American History
• Black Narratives of Slavery
• The U.S. Constitution
• Witchcraft

Whether you’re in the initial phases of your research or you just want to learn something new or refresh your memory on a specific topic, these A Very Short Introduction books provide a great starting point.

Search our catalog to browse the titles from the A Very Short Introduction books available through the libraries in the CW Mars network. If you have a library card with us, you can request to borrow these (and any other book) through the CW Mars network and have it sent to the State Library for pickup! Don’t have a library card with us? Sign up for one today (please note that you must be a current, permanent employee of Executive, Legislative, or Judicial branches of government in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and have valid Commonwealth of Massachusetts identification in order to get a library card with us): Apply for a State Library Card or Renew an Existing Card.

If you need assistance locating these resources – or any other titles for your research, please feel free to email us at Reference.Department@mass.gov and one of our librarians will be happy to assist you.

Happy reading!

Maryellen Larkin

Government Documents Reference Librarian