State Library of Massachusetts

History

The State Library’s origins date back to 1811 with the establishment of a program to exchange statutes with other states. The Library was formally established by the General Court in 1826 to hold these documents and other materials that had accumulated in offices throughout the State House. State Land Agent John W. Coffin was given the additional responsibilities of State Librarian, and the Library’s collection was housed in the Land Agent’s office. The exchange program was expanded in 1844 to include judicial decisions and other significant state documents, and the documents acquired through this program formed the core of the early collections of the State Library and is one of the largest collections of state publications in existence.

During the mid-19th century, the Library evolved into a comprehensive research library to support the work of the legislature, governor’s office, and other public officials. In addition to legal and public document holdings, the Library collected materials on a wide range of research topics, including political, historical, statistical, economic and scientific works. By this time, the Library’s collection had outgrown its original space and was moved to a larger, dedicated library space when a State House addition was completed in 1856. Also during this time, the Library came under the direction of the Secretary of the Board of Education in 1849.

Throughout the later part of the 19th century and early 20th century, the Library’s collections and operations continued to grow. In 1893, the Library became its own department directly under the Governor. The Library moved to its current location in 1895 and added an annex for additional stack space in the 1920s. This annex would become the Library’s Special Collections Department in the 1970s, where rare and special items such as maps, photographs, atlases, and manuscript materials are now located. These include treasures such as the Bradford Manuscript and the medal presented to Senator Charles Sumner by the Haitian government.

In 2007, the library created an online repository of state documents and in 2009, the library received funding to enhance its digital library. In 2012, card catalog converted to online public access catalog and books were reclassified from Dewey Decimal to Library of Congress call numbers.

In recent decades, the Library’s collecting focus has narrowed, with an emphasis now on disseminating information more quickly and easily. Although the Library still has an extensive historic collection of government documents from throughout the country and an older general research collection, the Library now focuses on collecting material specifically about Massachusetts, particularly state and municipal publications and histories. In the past decade, much of the Library’s efforts have been centered on providing electronic access to these materials by both capturing contemporary state publications and digitizing older Massachusetts-related materials.

Trustees

In 2016, the library's trustees are:

State Librarians

After the establishment of the State Library in 1826, the following individuals have acted as State Librarian of Massachusetts:

Digital Collections

Many library collections are available digitally through the library's website. These items include both older digitized material and more recent electronically borne state documents. Resources include the Massachusetts Acts and Resolves (1692 to present), annual reports of various state agencies and Special Collections materials, such as the IMLS funded project Mapping Massachusetts: The History of Transportation Systems in the Commonwealth. These documents are archived in the Library's digital repository.

Print Collections

The library holds collections in the areas of government documents, law, Massachusetts history, and public and current affairs. "As the legally designated depository library for Massachusetts state publications, the State Library has the most complete collection of Massachusetts government documents in existence." The library maintains a comprehensive collection of Massachusetts legislative documents and House and Senate Journals, which are the primary sources for doing Massachusetts legislative history research. The Periodicals holdings includes dozens of daily and weekly newspapers from various towns and cities in Massachusetts that are available in print and on microfiche.

Special Collections

The Special Collections department houses the library’s oldest and rarest materials, as well as the copy of record for Massachusetts legislative records. Holdings comprise rare books, manuscripts, broadsides, newspapers, tax valuations, architectural drawings, prints and photographs, scrapbooks, souvenirs and archival collections from former Massachusetts legislators. The collection, which dates to the early 1600s, is particularly strong in nineteenth and twentieth-century city directories, maps, and atlases for towns across Massachusetts.

Exhibitions

The library curates several exhibits each year that feature items from the library collections. Past library exhibits have included:

Select images from these exhibits can be viewed on the library's Flickr page.