Join fellow North Dakota archive, library and museum professionals/volunteers at free regional meetings in October for:

• collections care information and resource materials
• discussions about the current state of collections in North Dakota, leading to potential future funding opportunities
• networking lunch with collections professionals/volunteers and elected officials

Registration

Registration is required by Oct. 7. To register go to http://collectionconversations.eventbrite.com or call 701-355-4458

Regional Meeting Schedule (each from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.)

Oct. 12  -  Dickinson at the Dickinson City Hall

Oct. 13  -  Williston at Williston Community Library

Oct. 15  -  Bismarck at North Dakota Heritage Center

Oct. 16  -  Minot at Minot State University

Oct. 19  -  Devils Lake at Lake Region State College

Oct. 20  -  Grand Forks at Grand Forks County Historical Society

Oct. 21  -  Fargo at Plains Art Museum

Oct. 22  -  Jamestown at National Buiffalo Museum

The microfilm runs of the Bismarck Tribune and the Grand Forks Herald that were located at the NDSU main library are now located at the Institute for Regional Studies & University Archives and are available for use in its research room. The years available for the Bismarck Tribune are 1970 through 1999. The Grand Forks Herald years available are from the beginning of publication in 1879 through 1999.

The archives staff will make copies of articles and obituaries for these years, however we will need a specific date for an article or an exact date of death.  Our copy charge is $5.00 per article/obituary.

With the much appreciated work of volunteer Jane Skjei, over 9,000 additional entries have been added to the North Dakota Biography Index.  This is an ongoing project of the Institute for Regional Studies to provide easy access to the wealth of biographical information on North Dakotans in a wide variety of publications. Current work is to complete the indexing of community histories published since 1980 (we are currently indexing those beginning with ‘R’), as well as newly received community histories.

The new publications now included in the NDBI include the North Dakota communities of Robinson (1986), Glen Ullin (2008), Milnor (2008), Riverdale (1997) and Rocklake (2005). Also indexed was the 1997 Klara Lutheran Church history (Maddock, N.D.), and the county atlases for Rolette (2000), Mercer & Oliver (1999), Eddy & Foster (1998), and Pierce (2000).

To view all the entries for these new books, use the ‘Search by Publication Title’ section found on the NDBI search page. The titles for the indexed works are:

50 Years Riverdale, N.D., 1947-1997
Diamond Jubilee History, Robinson, North Dakota, 1911-1986
Glen Ullin Yesteryears Volume II, 1983-2008
Milnor, North Dakota, 1883-2008
Century of Reflections, Rocklake, 2005
Klara Lutheran Church, 1897-1997
Atlas of Pierce County, North Dakota, 2000
Atlas of Rolette County, North Dakota, 2000
Atlas of Mercer & Oliver Counties, North Dakota, 1999
Atlas of Eddy-Foster Counties, North Dakota, 1998

The NDSU Libraries was the NDSU feature for the biennial Higher Education Showcase held March 4 in the Great Hall of the North Dakota State Capitol. Highlighted were the Libraries’ special collections of the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection and the Institute for Regional Studies. Representing the Libraries was Dean Michele Reid; Michael M. Miller, curator of the Germans from Russia collection; and John E. Bye, director of the Institute for Regional Studies & University Archives. A powerpoint presentation featured Digital Horizons, the new digitization program of the Institute being done in partnership with the State Historical Society of North Dakota, Prairie Public  Broadcasting and Concordia College Archives. The goal of this digitization program is to make the public aware of the depth of photographs in the collections of the Institute and University Archives, and also to provide easy web access to these valuable historical resources.

People are invited to visit Digital Horizons and view the over 11,000 items already available.

• Search the Fargo Forum Obituary Database

Thanks to the indexing work of volunteer Elaine Linke of Fargo, 1,725 additional entries have been added to the Fargo Forum Obituary Index database. The new entries cover the period of April 1908 to August 10, 1909. it continues her earlier indexing that begins with the 1892 Fargo Forum. Her indexing includes both published obituaries as well as notices of death. Currently the database has over 73,000 entries.

The Institute for Regional Studies has a complete run of the Fargo Forum newspaper up to December 2002 and are available for public use. The Institute does provide a copy service for obituaries as well as other articles found in the newspaper. Contact information is provided on the database site.

Welcome to the completely revamped website of the Institute for Regional Studies & University Archives, now released in January 2009. Our new look is part of the new website developed for the NDSU Libraries. Almost all the information found on our former site has been retained and included on the new site.

Check out the main categories found in the left column. Each will give you further options. We have also tried to develop links between related pages and topics to make maneuvering easier.

As with any website, the archives website is never finished and additions and changes will be an ongoing process. We invite your comments on the site and how we may make it easier for your use. Drop us an e-mail or use the Send Comment link.

• Institute Photographs on Digital Horizons
• University Archives Photographs on Digital Horizons

The Institute for Regional Studies & University Archives is pleased to make available fully searchable photograph databases to historical images related to NDSU and North Dakota.

The Web databases (separate databases for Institute and Univesity Archives photographs) currently include over 4,000 images, with new images being added weekly. With each image there is extensive descriptive information, including names, places, time period, photographer, and subjects. You can also view other images found within the same photograph collection, using the ‘Repository Collection’ link found in each record.

Searching is easy, using the Search link found on the home page. Almost any term found in the description can be ‘clicked’ to obtain new search results. Digital copies may be ordered for any image in the database.

We invite you to explore this region as seen through the eyes of the people who lived here in the late 19th century and through the 20th century, as well as the development of North Dakota State University in the 1920s and 1930s when it was the ‘A.C.’

The Institute for Regional Studies for over fifty-eight years has been committed to the collection and preservation of photographs which document North Dakota ’s history. Currently it preserves over 100,000 photographic images. Images still are actively sought from individuals, businesses, and other groups who have an interest in having their historically significant materials preserved for posterity and made available for research and scholarly use.

• Institute Book Order Form

New Institute for Regional Studies publication tells the story about how one North Dakota man managed to pluck more than a hundred German Jews away from the clutches of the Nazis. Close to one hundred thousand European Jews found refuge in the United States before the onset of the Second World War.

You Have Been Kind Enough to Assist me: Herman Stern and the Jewish Refugee Crisis is the story is about how one man living in a small town in North Dakota, by dint of his energy, determination, refusal to be discouraged, help at critical moments (for he well knew that he could never have succeeded as he did without the help of a special friend in Washington), he managed to pluck more than a hundred German Jews away from the clutches of the Nazis. It was a remarkable achievement. Then when, after the Holocaust, historians argued, with justice, that America could have done more, this man was content to express his gratitude that with help he was able to do something.

You Have Been Kind Enough to Assist Me provides a rare glimpse of how some Americans reacted to the Holocaust as it was developing in Europe.

Author Terry Shoptaugh is a professor of history and the University Archivist at Minnesota State University Moorhead. He is the author of two previous books on Minnesota and North Dakota history, and is currently writing a book on the role of North Dakota national guard units in World War II.

The price is only $24.95. Mail orders may be sent to the Institute for Regional Studies, NDSU Dept. #2360, P.O. Box 6050, Fargo, ND 58108-6050. A convenient order form is available at the Institute web site.

• Institute Book Order Form

Do you need a new address book? Is your current one full or certain letters out of space to add new names? Forget people’s birthdays? The Institute has a new publication just for you.

Its Greetings from North Dakota address and date book will help you organize this important information. The book features scenes from towns across North Dakota taken from historic postcards in the archival collections of the Institute. The over fifty images include bird’s-eye views of towns, town schools, churches and other buildings, as well as the Dakota landscape. The postcards, spanning from 1907 to the 1930s, come from the collections of Lawrence Aasen and Dr. Ronald Olin. The Aasen images are from his mother Clara Aasen’s correspondence, while Olin’s are part of a 10,000 postcard collection he recently donated to the Institute.

Check local book and gift stores across the state to purchase a copy. Copies are also available directly from the Institute. The price is only $13.95. Mail orders may be sent to the Institute for Regional Studies, NDSU Dept. #2360, P.O. Box 6050, Fargo, ND 58108-6050. A convenient order form is available at the Institute web site.

Copies are also available for purchase at the Institute Archives office located at 1305 19th Ave. North, Fargo, N.D. (in the Skills and Technology Training Center, Rm. 117). The archives is not able to handle mail orders.

• Institute Book Order Form

The Institute for Regional Studies offers a new publication, A Prairie Prayer; Poems by Bruce Roseland and illustrated by Marie Louise Tesch.

This collection of poems continue the ideas first introduced by South Dakotan Bruce Roseland in The Last Buffalo. Bruce’s poems are about surviving the (simple) country life in South Dakota.

A Prairie Prayer expands the descriptions of modern farm/ranch life with an appreciation for the past and a wry wit honed by the lonely winds of the prairie. Roseland’s poems describe a life connected to the land.

“Once again it has been a pleasure to serve as Bruce Roseland’s editor, for in every way, A Prairie Prayer is a successful companion volume to his first book, The Last Buffalo. His rootedness, his honesty and directness, and his understanding of the changes that have been occurring in the rural Dakotas remain constant, but if the landscape here is a familiar one, the stories are new and compelling. People living in this part of the country, in particular, can be thankful for the kind of record Bruce Roseland has provided; readers everywhere can appreciate these thoroughly human perspectives and their celebration of the prairie land and people.” says Mark Vinz., Professor of Mass Communication, Minnesota State University, Moorhead.

The price is only $11.95. Mail orders may be sent to the Institute for Regional Studies, NDSU Dept. #2360, P.O. Box 6050, Fargo ND 58108-6050. A convenient order form is available at the Institute web site.