web
site for hours of operation, contacts, catalogues, etc.
Massachusetts College
of Liberal Arts Library
The Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts is the new moniker for
the former North Adams State College, which formally introduced the
name change during the current (1997-98) school year. Its library is
located off of Church Street in the Fein Building on campus. Call for
hours of operation [Ph. (413) 662-5321], or see the NASC web site.
Permanent residents of Berkshire County and students at any
Massachusetts State College may check out books (the latter through an
instantaneous version of Inter-library loan), although Williams
College students must fill out an application from the Williams
College library before doing so. Their electronic catalog system is
currently a bit cumbersome; one might do better to use the card
catalogue.
Many of the local reference books here are in a vault and
need to be specifically requested at the circulation desk.
Massachusetts Museum of
Contemporary Art (MassMoCA)
MassMoCA, a museum focusing on contemporary art which is
scheduled to open in 1998, has offices at 87 Marshall Street in North
Adams (01247). The site of the former Sprague Electric and Arnold
Print Works complex is currently undergoing renovation for museum
exhibition, performance, and production spaces. Plans for the site,
program, and community outreach are available at MassMoCA or on their
web site. A copy of the Museum's
1989 Feasibility Study and numerous artifacts relating to
Sprague's tenure in the buildings exist here; if you wish to examine
these call [(413) 664-4481] or fax [(413) 663-8548] ahead of time to
arrange your visit with the museum staff.
North Adams Public Library (NAPL)
The North Adams Public Library is located on Church Street in
North Adams. [Ph. (413) 662-3133] Open from Monday-Saturday during
the school year, Monday-Friday during the summer (except for national
holidays), hours vary. A library card is needed to check out
materials, with a special application for those who wish to take out
videos. Temproary residents of the area may also apply for a
card; a local phone number is needed to verify residence.
North Adams allows a fair portion of its local history section to go
into circulation and also has a number of items in its vault. Vault
items are often not marked in the card catalog, (usually because there
is another copy in circulation) though librarians are willing to look
for items if given the call number, title, and author.
North Adams
State College Library (NASC)
North Adams State College recently changed its name. See entry
under Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.
Files of Maynard Seider (MS)
A professor of sociology at the Massachusetts College of Liberal
Arts, Seider is an avid local historian and has written a number of
articles about union activity in North Adams. He maintains a small
collection of papers and essays pertaining to local history in his
office in Murdoch Hall. He also has a number of video and audio tapes
of interest, including coverage of a Sprague "Fun Fair" during the
1980's, a tape of R.C. Sprague being interviewed on the company's
radio program, and a performance of the play The Sprague Years
at the College (with an additional tape featuring a Q & A session with
R.C.'s son John following the performance). Seider may be reached at
the following address:
Department of Sociology
Murdoch Hall
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
Church Street
North Adams, MA 01247
Williams College Sawyer Library (WCL)
Opened every day during the school year (with limited summer
hours), the library [Ph. (413) 597-2501] maintains a computerized card
catalog system, Francis, which also lists
most of the items in its subsidiary libraries on campus, including the
College Archives and the Matt Cole
Library at the Center
for Environmental Studies. Hours, information, and the on-line
catalogue are available on the library's web
pages. Williams students, alumni, faculty, and Williamstown
residents may take out books after obtaining a library card, and
anyone is welcome to read books inside the library.
Williams College Archives (WCA)
Located on the first floor of Stetson Hall (adjacent to Sawyer
Library), this non-circulating collection contains a number of local
histories and documents, as well as several theses germane to the
study of the Arnold Print Works and Sprague Electric, and the
general development of industry and town demographics. Given the fact
that the Arnold Print Works operated a subsidiary company in
Williamstown (the Williamstown Manufacturing Company), a number of
relevant works deal with Williamstown.
The College Archives [Ph. (413) 597-2568] are generally open from
8:30AM- 4:30PM weekdays, year-round. To request to see a work, give
the archivist the title, author, and call number. In the case of
student theses, give the title, author, year and department in which
the thesis was written. All works must be examined in the archives
room, though special requests may be made for the photocopy of some
materials.
Matt
Cole Library Center for Environmental Studies, Kellogg House,
Williams College (CES)
A branch of Williams' Sawyer Library, the Matt Cole Library
[Ph. (413) 597-2500] in Kellogg House has a number of specific sources
about the Marshall Street site in North Adams-- including a clippings
file on MassMoCA. There are also
several books dedicated to Berkshire County in general in which
information on North Adams and its industries may be found. The
Library maintains extensive hours throughout the week during the
school year, and is open from 8:30AM - 4:30PM weekdays during most of
the summer and vacations.
University of
Massachusetts at Amherst: W.E.B. DuBois Library: Special
Collections (UMAW)
The UMass-Amherst Library has duplicates of a few of the works
listed in this bibliography. Hours of operation and other information
are available either by calling the library directly [Ph. (413)
545-0414] or through the DuBois Library web page.
In addition, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst's Special
Collections department [Ph. (413) 545-2780] has a collection of
papers covering the activities of Sprague production workers'
Independent Condenser Workers' Union (ICW #2) and its successor, the
International Union of Electrical Workers (IUE Local #200). The
collection, MS #315, is contained in four boxes, measuring 2 linear
feet. Special Collections is located on the 25th floor of
the W.E.B. Library.