In this week’s blog post, we’re highlighting a little-known, but extremely useful resource: our collection of
List of Committees of the General Court volumes. These books are exactly what they say they are: they contain the members of each committee of the General Court for a particular year. The State Library has volumes for 1883 to 2020 (please note this title was not published from 2003 to 2006).
Each volume is broken down by committees of the Senate, committees of the House, and Joint Committees. You’ll see the name of the committee followed by the legislators who are on that committee.
Not only do these volumes list each committee with its members, but they also break this information down a second way. Each member of the Senate and then each member of the House is listed individually and alongside their name are the committees of which they were a part of. Having this information in two different ways is great for us as Reference librarians and for our patrons as well. For example, a researcher may want to know who was on the Public Safety Committee in 1991. Someone else may want to know which committees Senator Kathleen Teahan was on in 1998. Having committee membership recorded in two different ways is extremely helpful in cases like these.
You can also find legislators and their committee assignments in the
Massachusetts Political Almanac, along with a host of other information. If committees are what you’re interested in though, these Lists of Committees volumes are a quick go-to source with easy-to-find information.
Questions? Reach out to us at
reference.department@mass.gov and we’ll be happy to help!
Jessica Shrey
Legal Research Reference Librarian
