We Asked and You Answered! Now We Try to Answer You!

A huge thank you to everyone who took the time to fill out our State Library user survey back in the spring—we really appreciate your insightful feedback and suggestions.  And what are we going to do to meet your needs and answer your burning questions? Read on!

To start, we did have a few revelations:

• 30% of survey respondents said they visited the library in person more than “rarely”
• 40% of survey respondents said they visited the library’s website more than “rarely”
• 24% of survey respondents said they visit the library’s DSpace digital repository more than “rarely”
• 83% of survey respondents are not followers of the library’s accounts on social media

Clearly we have our work cut out for us to spread the word about our collections and services to you out there--wherever you may be.  Okay—so how can we improve?  First, let’s take a look at the five most popular reasons users actually come to the library in person:

• to do legislative or legal research
• to attend library programs
• to have a quiet place to study, read, or just relax
• to view library exhibits
• to do historical or genealogical research

The most popular reason—legislative or legal research—has been traditionally the most requested service at the State Library, and we are working on getting more of the items needed to do legislative history digitized and available on our DSpace repository. The Acts are already available, and the Resolves are digitized and will be coming soon.  In the meantime, you can see our Resolves volumes in the State Library's Internet Archive collections. The final editing of the digitized Legislative Documents collection (the “as filed” House and Senate Bills) will be completed and loaded in their entirety to DSpace we hope by the end of 2017.  Also, the historical House and Senate Journals have been digitized as well and will soon be added to our DSpace repository.

Our popular, monthly lunch-time “Author Talks” series will resume after the summer on Tuesday, Sept. 12 with author Larry Tye on his book Bobby Kennedy: the Making of a Liberal Icon, so please plan on returning for these great library programs as this will be only the first of an exciting lineup of interesting books and authors! We are also planning a “Library Treasures” tour for September and a genealogy research program in November to showcase the library’s collections in these areas. So, how do you find out about these programs? They are always promoted on our website or please sign up for our email announcement list. Did you also know that we have a group for Friends of the State Library? If you want to join the Friends or receive the Friends’ monthly newsletter, NEWSBrief, just email us.

We are thrilled that you love our “newly refreshed” and welcoming space after the extensive top to bottom renovations that were completed in 2015. Thank you for just coming in to read or meet with colleagues and please don’t forget that library staff is always available to help you and answer any questions you may have. By the way, check out our fun photo album showing how things have changed over the last hundred years in the State Library space! Be sure to view our latest exhibit before you leave as we always have something interesting right outside our main entrance in room 341 of the State House. In case you didn’t know, we also host our exhibits “virtually” on flickr for those of you who can’t make it into Boston and want to check them out.

We are very proud of our extensive historical and genealogical collections here at the library and glad that you like them too!  We frequently highlight the most unusual, quirky and/or the most curious items in our library staff blog posts so you can also “discover” them along with library staff.  One of our most treasured holdings is William Bradford’s manuscript, Of Plimoth Plantation from 1630—you can read about its restoration and conservation by the Northeast Document Conservation Center, and you can “see” it for yourself digitally in our DSpace repository.

We are working on digitizing more and more of our unique, non-copyrighted, historical and genealogical collections, especially historical maps and Massachusetts city and town annual reports and directories which were particularly singled out by survey participants. We highlight our extensive holdings of genealogical resources in this informative brochure. Coming soon to DSpace we will have the entire digitized collections of the Massachusetts Public Documents which contain the historical annual reports of state agencies and commissions. We have also reformatted and digitized our finding aids for library manuscript and former legislators’ papers collections.

And what are the five most popular ways that users make use of the library’s collections and resources both in-person and remotely?

• using the library's website and/or online catalog
• performing onsite research
• using digitized materials contained in the library's DSpace digital repository 
• using the library's databases and electronic journals
• finding digitized collections from search engine results that link to library resources

The overwhelming majority of you took the time to comment positively on the library and library staff and just want more of what we are doing already—more digitized items, more programs, and more promotion and outreach. We want you to know who we are and what we do! In that spirit, we are working on more “how-tos” and guides for our library resources and redesigning our library homepage on the new mass.gov, which will be launching later this year. Thank you again for all your support!

State Library of Massachusetts

Collection Now Available: Denise Provost papers on legislation concerning gender identity and nondiscrimination

Now available is a collection level record which includes a link to a longer finding aid.

A collection of papers from Denise Provost (Manuscripts Collection 165) is now available for research in the Special Collections Department of the State Library.  First elected in 2006, Denise Provost is the representative for the 27th Middlesex District in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. The collection of papers concerns her work on the Transgender Public Accommodations bill that was passed in 2016. The Transgender Public Accommodations bill was created to close a loophole in the 2012 Transgender Equal Rights Act that allowed for transgender people to be discriminated against in public accommodations like restaurants.

The papers include meeting materials of the Steering Committee working to pass the Transgender Public Accommodations bill. Included are the meeting notes and the names of local businesses they approached for support. Also included in the collection are documents related to a legislation briefing held for members of the House of Representatives in July 2015 regarding transgender rights and the Transgender Public Accommodations bill.

Of note in the collection are documents sent to Denise Provost from various organizations around Massachusetts, including the Massachusetts Family Institute and Freedom Massachusetts.  Organizations sent documents voicing their support or opposition of the bill to Denise Provost.

Also in the collection are documents Denise Provost used for research, including Massachusetts city ordinances, state laws, pamphlets, publications, as well as state guidelines on nondiscrimination. Denise Provost also collected newspaper clippings from local and national papers. These clippings document the discussion of transgender rights in the United States and more specifically Massachusetts from 2008-2017.  

Ariel Barnes
Special Collections Intern

Massachusetts Buildings That Once Housed Public Records

The State Library invites you to view our newest collection of photographs in Flickr! This collection comprises 182 black and white historic photographs of municipal buildings that once housed public records from various Massachusetts counties, cities, and towns. All of the photographs were taken between 1899 and 1905 by Robert Thaxter Swan, the Massachusetts Commissioner of Public Records at that time.

"City Hall and Public Library building, New Bedford, Mar. 4, 1902"

These photographs were pasted into a scrapbook, which was given the title Buildings in which Public Records are kept in Counties, Cities, and Towns in Massachusetts. Each photograph in the scrapbook is accompanied by a handwritten caption, which has been transcribed and included in the description for each image in Flickr. From Acton to Yarmouth, 102 of the 351 Massachusetts cities and towns (plus one New Hampshire city, Nashua) are represented in this collection.

"Town Clerk's house, Hamilton, safe in the porch, May 29, 1900"

"Vault intact, records slightly smoked, Hopkinton, Mar. 19, 1900"

This scrapbook is housed in the State Library's Special Collections Department in Room 55 of the Massachusetts State House and is available for viewing Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm.

Laura Schaub
Cataloging Librarian

Friends of the State Library Newsletter -- July edition

John Quincy Adams from Beyond the Veil

Of the many interesting books housed in the library’s collection, one in particular recently caught our eye: Twelve Messages from the Spirit of John Quincy Adams through Joseph D. Stiles, Medium, to Josiah Brigham.  The book was published in 1859 by Boston publisher Bela Marsh during a time in which the spiritualism movement was growing increasingly popular.  Followers and curious onlookers sought to gain greater knowledge from spirits and speak to their deceased loved ones, usually by attending séances or by consulting mediums.  Spirit photography arrived in the latter part of the 19th century, with one of the most famous examples being the image of a seated Mary Todd Lincoln with the ghost of her husband, Abraham, resting his hands on her shoulders.

According to the book’s preface, Josiah Brigham states that, from August of 1854 until March of 1857, the medium Joseph D. Stiles, while entranced, allowed the spirit of John Quincy Adams to communicate through him using automatic writing.  These sessions were held in Brigham’s home in Quincy, Mass. and at his son-in-law’s home in Boston, and it was Adams himself who requested that the messages be published.  Brigham further states:

Mr. Stiles is a respectable, unassuming young man, of only common-school education, with no pretensions to more than common capabilities.  He is a printer by trade, and worked at that business until he perceived he possessed mediumistic powers.  His organization is such that he is very susceptible to spirit-influence, and is one of the best writing-mediums in the country.

John Quincy Adams’ alleged discourse from beyond the veil is very Dante-esque.  Speaking from “Spirit Land, Sixth Sphere,” he vividly illustrates for the reader what he sees or has seen in the different spheres of the afterlife.  He also describes his meetings with relatives, as well as Biblical and historical figures in the spheres--delivering their many messages of philosophy and morality to the corporeal reader.  Adams also speaks of his visits to earth, during which he would visit living relatives and attempt to prove to mortals the existence of the afterlife.

This book is available online in its entirety and can be viewed by visiting: https://archive.org/details/twelvemessagesfr00stil 

Kaitlin Connolly
Reference Dept.