The Hilton C. Buley Library at Southern Connecticut State University is host to a collection of documents which includes materials from four former New Haven mayors, consisting of more than 188 cubic feet of material in the library’s Special Collections & Archives. An effort to digitize the documents has brought broader access to a majority of the materials from the 20-year John DeStefano mayoral tenure (1994-2013). The ease and depth of access to these documents sheds light on the inner workings of the city of New Haven, but also highlights the types of records that are currently available to the public through a simple Freedom of Information Request. These primary source documents include government reports, meeting minutes, speech drafts and internal communications at New Haven City Hall. They are valuable tools for students as they learn about public policy, reporting on municipalities, and several other issues, such as school reform and economic development, that have been detailed in depth through the communications, reports and city documents. This session, geared toward beginners, will provide context about the collection and instructions on how to access it, as well as assignment ideas for using public records in class, and resources to support filing your own Freedom of Information requests for records to use in the classroom.