The Hunt for Transcripts

When conducting a legislative history, researchers usually want transcripts - transcripts from public hearings, transcripts from the testimony given by experts, or transcripts from legislative sessions. Typed transcripts are ideal when trying to uncover intent, however in Massachusetts tracking down verbatim transcripts can be tricky. When a request comes in for a transcript, I usually like to preface that in the history of the General Court, there has never been an official transcriber. However, transcripts do exist and there have been recent advances when it comes to tracking down what was said on the floor or at a hearing, especially for more current legislation.

Before we look into the online resources and databases that are more conducive to researching the past 10-15 years or so, let’s look at the State Library’s catalog. The catalog encompasses the library’s Massachusetts specific collections. When looking for a transcript using the catalog, it is best to search using keywords rather than a bill number. For example, if you were researching 1882 Senate Bill 0220 An Act For The Preservation Of The Public Health In The Towns Bordering Upon The Blackstone River, And Of The Purity Of The Waters Of Said River regarding sewage pollution from Worcester - search the catalog by using keywords like ‘sewage’ and ‘Worcester.’ The catalog will pull up items like the following hearing transcript and testimony: The sewage of Worcester in its relation to the Blackstone River: hearings before the Joint Standing Committee on Public Health, on the matter of restraining the city of Worcester from polluting Blackstone River.

In a more contemporary example, if you were looking into bills relating to minority and women owned businesses in 1990, search the catalog using terms such as ‘discrimination’ and ‘hearing’ and you will get the following public hearing documents:

• Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination public hearing on discrimination against minority and women owned businesses: August 22, 1990

• Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination public hearing on discrimination against minority and women businesses: September 19, 1990, Scibelli Hall, Springfield Technical Community College, Springfield, Massachusetts

These are just some examples of what exists in terms of transcripts and testimony in the State Library’s collections. It is important to note that if the item is available digitally, the catalog will link out directly to the item in the State Library’s digital repository. If the item is only available in print, please reach out to the Reference Department.

Now onto the best online resources for transcripts. With any legislative history, a good place to start is with the Massachusetts Legislature site. It may seem obvious, but the legislature's site provides a lot of information including bills, bill histories, Acts back to 1997, committee reports, recordings of sessions and special events, and more. You can find session and hearing recordings under the Hearing & Events tab; filter by date using the List view. If a recording is available, there will be a little video camera icon. Recordings from more recent sessions will sometimes include the Agenda, a listing of the bills discussed, links to motions such as roll call votes, and sometimes links to meeting documents. While the legislature site is just beginning to implement a transcript feature into the recordings, the next best place to look is MassTrac.

MassTrac is a bill tracking database. The database goes back to 1995, but is better suited for researching the mid-2000s to present. MassTrac has a Transcripts tab. You can search for committee hearings, floor debates, and special commission transcripts. You can also search by selecting the session year and by keyword searching. Once you have selected a recording, you can view it directly in MassTrac. MassTrac has a lot of great features for searching transcripts - after all hearings and sessions can go for hours. To make it easier on the researcher, you can keyword search within the video to bring you to the timestamp where that keyword was discussed or you can click on a word in the typed transcript to jump to it in the video! There is also the option to show/hide non-essential dialogue. MassTrac also provides access to written, submitted testimony and has the option print/download the transcript as a PDF. Masstrac is available to users in-library.

Last but not least is State House News Service. SHNS is an independent reporting service. Its online archive goes back to 1987. Its advanced search filter allows you to keyword search, narrow by date, and has options to search for articles, documents, images, and videos. SHNS service provides session roundups, coverage of hearings and events, and while not verbatim transcripts, these articles will provide direct quotes from legislators which is essential for legislative histories. State House News Service is available to users in-library.

Tracking down transcripts can be hard but always feel free to reach out to the Reference Department. We are here to provide guidance and help you navigate the resources and print collections.


April Pascucci
Legislative Reference Librarian