Healey: Library access is about “a better democracy”
STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, March 3, 2026…..While the Massachusetts State Library celebrates its 200th birthday, its administrators say they could use more funds for making its records easier to access.
State Library Trustee Robert Cerasoli, a former state representative and inspector general, said another $1 million would be a “boon” for the library and help with digitizing records and hiring staff to do so. Gov. Maura Healey’s fiscal year 2027 budget proposal includes just under $1.7 million for the library’s operations.
“Having been on the board of this library for a long time, I always thought this library has been underfunded,” Cerasoli said, acknowledging the governor has a lot of competing interests to account for in the budget.
While the library is located within the State House, it also serves the general public, something Cerasoli said many residents aren’t aware of. Digitizing the library’s records is crucial to making them available to all state residents, he said.
“We have the physical anchor, which is great, which should always be, but we have to digitize a lot of what we have to make it available to more people and to give it that broad breadth that we need,” Cerasoli said.
Gov. Maura Healey has allocated more than $500,000 for the library’s ongoing digitization and preservation of documents along with $140,000 in capital funds for a repository service to boost the accessibility of the library’s historical collections, Administration and Finance Secretary Matthew Gorzkowicz said Tuesday during a birthday celebration for the library. Cerasoli said these funds are “fantastic” for the library.
“As we look for more ways to improve the way the government operates and serves people in Massachusetts, partnership and innovation with the library is essential to that effort,” Gorzkowicz said.
Healey noted the library is home to key documents and archives documenting both state and national history, including William Bradford’s account of the pilgrims’ Mayflower travels and settling in Plymouth, as well as the state’s acts and resolves dating back to 1692. And as technology advances, Healey said having the library as a repository is crucial.
“At the end of the day, this is all about providing a more informed electorate and with that, a better democracy,” Healey said. “The relics and the history that these shelves hold is absolutely amazing.”
