Welcome to the Regional History Center, a unique component of NIU’s commitment to education, research, and public service. The Center’s mission is to acquire, preserve, and make available to the public the most significant historical records of the northern Illinois region. We actively collect from the eighteen northern counties of Illinois excluding Cook County. Since 1977 the Center has grown into a multifaceted research center which houses three related sets of historical records: University Archives, Regional Collections, and Local Government Records (Illinois Regional Archives Depository). The Regional History Center is always adding manuscripts to the collections. Please feel free to contact the center if you believe you have documents that should be preserved for future generations.
The Regional History Center is open to the public Monday through Friday from 8:00 am until noon and from 1:00 to 4:30 pm the year around except legal holidays and university closures. The Center is located in Room 400 on the fourth floor of Founders Memorial Library. We encourage you to visit the Center any time and our reference staff stands ready to assist you with a variety of guides, inventories, shelflists, and indices. You may write us at:
Regional History Center
Founders Memorial Library, Room 400
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, Illinois 60115
You may call us at (815)753-1779 and we will be happy to provide you information about our holdings. We encourage you to call before you visit so we can help plan your visit to the center. At present we cannot entertain requests for information by fax or e-mail.
Center staff will provide reference service only and cannot do research for patrons with the exception of limited genealogical research in the IRAD collection. All materials must be used in the center’s reading room: the collections do not circulate. All researchers are required to sign in with the Center staff and new researchers are required to fill out a Researcher Registration Form. Researchers will need to adhere to the established research policies set forth by Center staff.
Policies and fees for copying materials held by the Regional History Center have been established to assure the preservation of the historical records, allow reasonable copying by researchers, and provide as much service as is possible given a small Center staff with very limited resources. In every case the Center reserves the right to refuse to copy any particular item: reproduction of manuscript materials is a privilege and not a service that must be automatically rendered on demand.
Center staff will make photocopies of materials in the collections for researchers working in the reading room for fifteen cents per page. Mail requests must be specific and are limited to one hour research time. Staff will not select the materials to be copied for researchers. Researchers are limited to two hundred copies per collection per year.
Photographic reproductions from photographs, transparencies, or negatives in the Center’s collections will be made by the university’s photographic services department according to a schedule of prices it sets. Please allow 7-10 working days for reproductions. There is no charge for non-profit use in publications or exhibits by non-profit agencies. The Center charges $40 per photograph reproduced for commercial use in books, serials, exhibits, calendars, posters, and the like. All images used from the Center should bear the credit line, “Northern Illinois University Archives.”
No paging or photocoping after 4:15 p.m.
All researchers must sign in at reference desk.
Briefcases, portfolios, bookbags, and coats must be placed on coat rack.
Smoking, food, and beverages are not allowed in the reading room.
No cell phones.
Only pencils are used in the reading room.
Laptops are permitted.
Scanners and cameras are not allowed.
Do not write on, trace, or handle materials in any way likely to damage the documents.
It is the responsibility of the researcher to secure permission to publish material from the Regional History Center. The researcher also assumes responsibility for possible infringement of copyright and/or literary property rights in the act of copying or in the subsequent use of materials.
Below is a map of the 18 counties that the N.I.U. Regional History Center serves.
