State Government Open Data

From March 12th to April 30th I completed the Civic Data Ambassadors program, which was offered by the City of Boston in collaboration with the Engagement Lab at Emerson College.  The program was advertised to Boston librarians who were curious about civic data and were interested in becoming Civic Data Ambassadors.  As student ambassadors, we learned about what civic data is, how it can be used to answer questions, how it impacts the Boston community, methods on searching and filtering open data, tools that can be used to create visualizations that can help with analysis, and how to identify when someone else can make use of such data.  “Open data,” as defined by the Open Data Handbook, is data that “can be freely used, re-used and redistributed by anyone;” “use” could mean simply viewing the information for general interest or research purposes, or it could mean using it to create a helpful tool (i.e. weather app, traffic app, etc.).  As part of the course we completed projects using primarily the open data published in Analyze Boston; however, I came out of the program wanting to learn more about open data that is published by the Massachusetts state government.  It’s important to keep in mind that data is just as important and useful for research as published reports are—maybe even more so!  Below are examples of open data portals available online that are maintained by state and quasi-state agencies on a regular basis; they also allow data to be downloaded or exported into user-friendly formats (i.e. CSV and Excel files).

Dataset titled “Lead and Copper Drinking Water Results in Schools/Childcare,”
published via the Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs Data Portal.

General
MassData: the Open Data Initiative for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Education
Massachusetts Department of Higher Education Data Center
MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) School & District Statewide Reports

Transportation
Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) Open Data Portal
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Data Dashboard

Financial/Economic
Office of the Comptroller’s CTHRU:  Financial Records Transparency Platform
Massachusetts Water Resources Authority Open Checkbook
Division of Banks Foreclosure Petition Website
Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance Contributions and Expenditures Data
Department of Unemployment Assistance - Labor Market Information (LMI)

Energy and Environment
Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) Data Portal
Mass Save Data

Health
Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA) Databooks
Massachusetts Environmental Public Health Tracking

Municipal
Division of Local Services (DLS) Municipal Databank
Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) Open Data

If you are interested in Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping, check out our earlier blog about shapefiles, data layers, and mapping tools published by the state: http://mastatelibrary.blogspot.com/2016/12/massachusetts-interactive-mapping.html 


Kaitlin Connolly
Reference Department

Collection Now Available: Military Records and Correspondence of Hugh Maxwell, a Colonel in the American Revolution

Recently processed, a collection of military records and correspondence of Hugh Maxwell (Manuscript 27) are now available for research in the Special Collection Department of the State Library.  Maxwell was an army officer who first saw battle when he volunteered for the American army during the French and India War.  He later reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel during the American Revolution.  Maxwell participated in the battles of Bunker Hill, Trenton, Princeton, Saratoga, and Monmouth, as well as the siege of Boston. 

A letter written by Maxwell during the American Revolution,
addressed to “My Dear,” assumedly his wife or one of his daughters,
to whom he wrote frequently while on tours.

The military records include a muster roll of Maxwell’s men while he was captain in Colonel Prescott’s Regiment in the Continental Army in 1776.  The roll includes the names and rank of the other officers in the company and the list of soldiers.  Also included are correspondences of General William Heath, Colonel John Baily, Lieutenant William Taylor, Captain Adam Baily, and Joseph Thomas.

Of note in the collection are items that evidence the struggles of the government to pay its soldiers and the worries of soldiers of how they would manage to live when they left the army.  Many of the officers and enlisted men had gone months, and in many cases years, without being paid for their services.  The treasury was empty and Congress lacked the means and power to raise money.  The little pay the army had received had not been in cash, but instead paper securities based on a future promise by the government to redeem them in cash. 

Congress, as the war was nearing an end, was becoming increasingly fearful of the ramifications of discharging a large mass of unpaid men all at once. To remedy the situation, Congress furloughed most of the men instead of discharging them, justifying the action by arguing that, while an army in the field was no longer necessary, it may be needed if negotiations with Britain broke down. Maxwell’s papers include a record of Maxwell’s men who had been paid for the month of July, 1776, a promissory note from Joseph Thomas concerning money owed Maxwell as a member of the Second Mass. Regiment, and a copy of a certificate of pay from the Office of Massachusetts Treasurer to Hugh Maxwell.

Caitlin Walsh

Special Collections Intern

Ben’s Guide to U.S. Government

Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for kids, named for Massachusetts’ native son, Benjamin Franklin, is a 6 part series on our United States Government at http://bensguide.gpo.gov/. Ben Franklin was a printer, librarian, inventor and statesman. One can learn about his life on the website. 

The guide covers grades Kindergarten through 12 and it includes a section for parents and teachers. On this website you can learn about: animals, arts, business, money, careers, computers, crime, justice, education, environment, health, national security and many more topics.

You can also find basic information about the U.S. Government and its agencies which is helpful to parents as well as kids. It is quite possible that among the varied agencies listed are some that may not be known to you before.

Ben’s guide is a resource for the whole family.