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PSCI 101 - The Politics of Place - Spring 2006

research guide for essay assignment – North Berkshire County
rohm@williams.edu / 413-597-4321

Political Science Subject Guide
Use resources in the above guide to find secondary material on local issues of interest.

Library materials on local communities using FRANCIS online catalog
Search FRANCIS http://francis.williams.edu/ online catalog by SUBJECT:

Examples:
North Adams Mass; Williamstown Mass; Cheshire Mass; Lanesboro Mass; Pittsfield Mass;
Note links to SUBJECT sub-headings, especially NEWSPAPERS and HISTORY

Library owns:
North Adams Transcript (and its previous incarnations) from mid 19th Century to present
Berkshire Eagle (and its previous incarnations) from 18th Century to present)
Search FRANCIS by SUBJECT [name of town] Mass Newspapers

Other local and regional information sources:

Administrative and Government

Towns publish annual town reports containing detailed information and statistics on administrative, educational and social services in the Town. Copies of these should be avialable at every Town Hall and local Public Library. Obtaining a copy of your town's Annual Report should be one of the first steps in your research.

All town web pages in Massachusetts

All town web pages in New York State

County and city web pages in Vermont

Village, Section or Neighborhood Names of Massachusetts Communities


Use the “edit/find in page” feature to find instances of “Berkshire” or any town name.

Profiles of America REF HT 123 .P7624 2003 contains capsulized geographic, demographic and socio-economic information about every inhabited place in U.S.


North Berkshire Towns and ZIP Codes (roughly north to south)



Clarksburg 01247	Lanesboro 01237
Williamstown 01267	Cheshire 01225
North Adams 01247	Windsor 01270
Florida 01247	Pittsfield 01201
New Ashford 01237	Dalton 01226
Adams 01220	Hinsdale 01235
Savoy 01256	Peru 01235
Hancock 01237

Demographic

• Search American FactFinder (1990 & 2000 United States Census) by ZIP Code or name of community. The Census contains detailed demographic, social and economic data.
• Historical Census data is also available; contact a reference librarian http://library.williams.edu/askalibrarian/

Environment

• Massachusetts Dept of Environmental Protection. Search “Community Focus” by town. Use other links on website to explore regional / local issues.
• Regional Environment Associations from Matt Cole Library (CES)
• Hudson River Watershed North Berkshire is part of the Hudson River Watershed.
• Vermont Dept. of Environmental Conservation
• New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation

Political

• Center for Responsive Politics Go to the “Get Local” section and search by Zip Code. Find local data on political campaign contributions – by business, industry and people.
• Project Vote-Smart. Search by ZIP Code for information on political representation and links to elected officials.
• America Votes REF JK1967 .A6 (1956 – present). Published biennially since 1956, this series gives election and voter party registration data by Congressional District for every general and primary election. Berkshire County is part of the Massachusetts 1st Congressional District.

Social Services

• A good place to start: Yellow Pages for category “Social and Human Services”. www.verizon.com (box in lower left of screen) or use the Verizon print Yellow Pages.
• There are also many links to social and human services groups from individual town pages listed above.

Cite your sources: http://library.williams.edu/citing/