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 convenience copy of the written text in digital formats contained on a 650 megabyte CD-R. The CD-R 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 Survey Research Center, forerunner of the Institute for Social Research (ISR), was established at the University of Michigan in 1946, under the direction of Rensis Likert as a center for interdisciplinary research in the social sciences. Fifty years after its founding, ISR had become the nation's longest-standing laboratory for interdisciplinary research in the social sciences. Findings from ISR studies have contributed to policy and practice on issues ranging from racial prejudice and drug abuse, to health, retirement, and welfare.
For a fuller history of ISR, consult Bulletin 45 in the Bentley Library Series: Frantilla, Anne. Social Science in the Public Interest: a Fiftieth-year History of the Institute for Social Research. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan, 1998. (FImu C6 S6 F836)
