Read All About It!

The New Rockford Transcript has a long and rich history of covering local news right here in rural North Dakota, and now some of our oldest newspapers can be easily accessed online.

The North Dakota Historical Society has recently digitized every edition of the Transcript published from 1883 through 1920, making over 12,000 pages of local history more accessible than ever.

Newspapers are among the most important sources of information for historical and genealogical research, and according to Shane Molander, an archivist with the State Historical Society of North Dakota, that's why efforts are ongoing to digitize local newspapers like the Transcript.

"Regarded as the first draft of history, newspapers are a wonderful primary source for genealogists and researchers of history," said Molander. "As the State Archives, it is our duty to preserve the state's history, state and local records of permanent value, photographs, moving images and other manuscript type material that are donated by people and organizations that have historical value."

Molander added that the effort to digitize early editions of the Transcript was a joint effort between the State Historical Society and the State Genealogical Society.

"They provided funding to cover the cost charged to us by the vendor to get it online," he said. "We provided the time and technical support to digitize off of microfilm and process the digital files to make them word searchable."

Every newspaper in North Dakota is required by law to send a copy of each edition to the State Historical Society – a law that has been on the books since 1905. That has allowed archivists to retroactively digitize many of those newspapers with the help of new technologies.

"To properly preserve the newspapers, we microfilm them," said Molander. "Some microfilming began in the 1950s, but it really took off in the 1980s with the help of grant funding. We continue to microfilm to this day, even if it is born digital."

At the Transcript office in New Rockford, there are physical copies of the Transcript dating back to 1899, which remain available by request to anyone looking for local history or genealogy.

However, having the Transcript digitized online now offers a much easier way for readers to explore newspaper content.

"Newspapers are a wonderful source of information, especially when they are digitized and word searchable," said Molander. "The user can just type in a name or event and every article that has that word in it will surface at your fingertips."

To see old editions of the Transcript from the years of 1883 to 1920, visit the historical society's website at http://www.history.nd.gov/archives/whatnewspapers.html

To get to the Transcript, click on "Advantage Archives" and search for the New Rockford Transcript under the "Titles" section.