Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

As part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Institute for Social Research, individuals connected with the history were interviewed. Excerpts of the videotaped interviews were used to produce "In the Public Interest: Fifty years of Social Research." Includes videotaped interviews with ISR personalities and typed transcripts of the interviews. For some interviews only a transcript is available. A copy of the final product excerpted from the interviews is included along with digital materials containing copies of the transcripts.

During 1997-1998, as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of ISR, a series of filmed interviews were conducted by Erik Austin with individuals connected with the history of ISR. The interviews were excerpted and used to produce the videotape history In the Public Interest: Fifty Years of Social Research. Documentation from this project includes a copy of the final video, videotaped interviews with individuals associated with ISR, and typed transcripts of the interviews. The records are arranged as two series: Videotapes and Transcripts.

The Videotapes series (29 VHS tapes) includes a copy of In the Public Interest: Fifty Years of Social Research a copy made from a 1956 University of Michigan television program featuring Angus Campbell, and 27 videotapes of interviews from 1997-1998. The Transcripts series contains written transcriptions of the interviews, along with a digital convenience copy of the written text. The digital material contains the text of the interview transcripts in Microsoft Word, PDF and TXT formats. Researchers should note that there are some interviews for which only a transcript is available. As such, the transcript series is more comprehensive than the videotape series.

The ISR Publications contains publications of the Institute for Social Research and several sub-units, especially the Survey Research Center. The publications include annual reports, histories, bibliographies, newsletters, brochures and research reports.

The ISR Publications include annual reports, bibliographies and book catalogs, brochures, histories, lectures, newsletters, such as FYI and Open Channel, and reports such as Perceptions of safety and security at the University of Michigan. Contains annual reports, bibliographies, brochures, bulletins and course catalogs, manuals, newsletters, and reports from the Center for Political Studies, Center for Research on Utilization of Scientific Knowledge, CIEL Project: Computers in Early Literacy, Inter-university Consortium for Political Research, National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging, Research Center for Group Dynamics, Survey Research Center, and the Population Studies Center.

The Publications series (6.5 linear feet, 477.9 KB) consists of three subseries: Unit Publications, Sub-Unit Publications, and Topical Publications.

The Institute for Social Research (ISR), an interdisciplinary center for social science research, was created in 1949 when the Research Center for Group Dynamics (founded at Massachusetts Institute of Technology) joined the university's Survey Research Center. ISR houses the Center for Political Studies (CPS), Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), Population Studies Center (PSC), Research Center for Group Dynamics (RCGD), and the Survey Research Center (SRC). Records document the founding and development of ISR and its related centers and programs and include audiovisual materials, minutes, correspondence, topical files, reports, and proposals. Administrative records include governance committees and director's files. Records of the Program for Research on Black Americans (PRBA) consist of grant proposals, survey instruments, focus group transcriptions, correspondence, bulletins, and internal governance records created under the auspices of PRBA and its various projects. Records of the Research Center for Group Dynamics are primarily the papers of director Kurt Lewin, including manuscripts and talks. Survey Research Center records consist largely of proposal and project files, although they also include faculty oral histories. The records of the Population Studies Center consist of lectures from its founder, Dr. Ronald Freedman, while the Center for Political Studies contains one binder of material from the American National Election Survey conducted in 1980.

The Institute for Social Research (ISR) records are dated from 1936-2017 (scattered) and consist of 143.8 linear feet (in 146 boxes) and digital files (online). Materials in this record group include audiovisual material, committee files (which include minutes and agendas), correspondence, directors' files, oral histories, publications, reports, and topical files. These records document the founding and subsequent development of ISR as well as its centers and programs, particularly the Program for Research on Black Americans (PRBA) and the Survey Research Center (SRC). The records also provide an overview of ISR's administration and the evolution of social science survey research methodology.

There are gaps in the records, which can be addressed in part through the papers of Rensis Likert, Angus Campbell, Dorwin P. Cartwright, and Philip E. Converse—all of which are held at the Bentley Historical Library (BHL). When viewed in conjunction with other ISR-related personal papers in the Bentley Historical Library, a rich and detailed picture of the growth of ISR as a center and the social science research discipline emerges.